Evaluating the Effectiveness of Frameworks Benchmarking for Quality Spiritual Care in Victoria, Australia

The Spiritual Health Association has developed two frameworks for use by spiritual care management across health services in Victoria (Australia), namely, the “Spiritual Care Minimum Data Set Framework” (SHV, 2015) and second, the “Spiritual Care in Victorian Health Services: Towards Best Practice Framework” (SHV, 2016a), hereafter referred to as “the frameworks.” For the first time, the frameworks have provided a consistent way of collecting data in Victoria, and of benchmarking spiritual care services in several areas including governance, credentialing, and quality improvement processes. The evaluation was conducted by surveying 36 spiritual care managers/co-ordinators in Victorian hospitals. The results were used to report to chief executive officers in Victorian health services. The results of the evaluation showed that the  frameworks were effective tools for auditing, benchmarking, and improving quality in spiritual care departments within health services in the State of Victoria, Australia. These frameworks were found to support spiritual care departments in undertaking continuous improvement initiatives in their local health services. The results have informed the development of future frameworks and guidelines for the spiritual care sector.