1. Bereavement
Best Practice

2. Topics: Documenting Initial Bereavement Assessment
Changes to Evaluation Visits and Bereavement visits
Adding a Contact to the Bereavement Console
Bereavement Activity Console
Updating the Care Plan/ Change in Risk Level
Risk Assessing After Death
Managing Bereavement

3. Documenting Initial Bereavement Assessment
An initial assessment will be completed in the Physical Assessment for 00 and 01 visits to ensure the initial assessment is done within 5 days of the SOC
This will take the place of the 72HA
The Bereavement Risk Assessment should also be done at the contact level during initial visits
The Bereavement Risk Assessment should be completed on all bereavement contacts by the responsible discipline

4. Start of Care and Add- On Evaluations
Bereavement Risk Assessment will be renamed to Spiritual Assessment in 00s and 01s
The Spiritual Assessment will be required to complete
Because the Risk Assessment will be completed at the start of care and add- on evaluation visits, the number of questions in the Spiritual Assessment has been greatly reduced to save time

5. Bereavement Visits and Calls
Bereavement Visits have had the number of questions reduced and now only require a narrative for different objective and subjective assessments

6. Adjustment to weighted values and Risk Level
There have been adjustments to the weight value of the questions in the Risk Assessment to portray a more realistic risk level
The risk levels now only include low, moderate and high
Risk Levels are:
Low Risk – 0-4
Moderate Risk – 5-9
High Risk 10 or above

7. Adding Contacts to the Bereavement Console
There are 4 ways that a Bereavement Contact is added to the Bereavement Console in R2
Completion of Risk Assessment in PointCare or R2
Patient Death – Bereavement contacts only
Pre –Bereavement via Referral
Manually add contact within Bereavement console

8. Completing Risk Assessment in PointCare
A patient will be added to the Bereavement Console when:
The Risk Assessment is done at the contact level through PointCare
Demographics
Contacts
Tap and Hold Contact
Complete Risk Assessment
Tap and Hold to review score
Add Contacts if Necessary

9. Adding a Bereavement Contact in PointCare
You may add a bereavement contact in PointCare through any visit type by accessing ‘Contacts’ in Demographics
Edit
Add
Complete Required Fields
Check ‘Bereavement’ Check Box

10. Completing a Risk Assessment in R2
Bereavement Console
A patient will be added to the Bereavement Console when:
The Risk Assessment is done through the Bereavement Console
Bereavement Console  Activity
Find Contact, double click
Add Risk Assessment
Complete Assessment
A message displays the risk level of the contact and care plan associated
Review Careplan

11. Patient Death A patient will be added to the Bereavement Console:
At the time of death. Once the death workflow has been processed (88H), all contacts marked as ‘Bereavement’ will be added to the Bereavement Console
Bereaved contacts will only be added at this time if they have not yet been assessed through either R2 or PointCare

12. Pre-Bereavement through Clinical Input
A patient will be added to the Bereavement Console when:
‘Begin Bereavement’ is selected in R2 in Clinical Input
This will begin any pre- bereavement activity

13. Manual Addition of Contact to Console
A contact will be added to the Bereavement Console when:
The contact is manually added to the Bereavement Console
Hospice
Community
Self- Referral

14. Bereavement Activity Console
Find Contact, double click
Contact Details
Contact Information
Risk Assessment
Careplan
Calendar

15. Contact Information
The contact’s information can be edited at anytime the contact is active in the system
Areas to Edit:
Contact Demographics
Patient Demographics
Referral Information
General Bereavement Information
Comments

16. Risk Assessment
The Risk Assessment history is viewable in the Bereavement Console if the Bereavement Coordinator wishes to view it
A Risk Assessment can be added here by selecting ‘Add Risk Assessment’
A Risk Assessment can be updated here the same way

17. Bereavement Plan of Care
The system automatically creates a Bereavement Careplan based on the risk assessment score when the Bereavement Risk Assessment is completed
This is viewable in Contact Details in the Careplan section
This can be edited/ customized by selecting ‘Edit’ at the top left

18. Calendar
The calendar will allow you to view any visits that have been plotted on the calendar for the contact
Changes cannot be made to the calendar through the bereavement console
Changes can be made through the scheduling console or in PointCare with a new order

19. Updating the Care Plan/ Change in Risk Level
Contacts can be re-assessed as many times as needed
This can be done through PointCare and R2
The history of all risk assessments will remain available in the Bereavement Console

20. Risk Assessing After Death
Risk Assessments can be completed on all bereavement contacts at the time of patient death
This Risk Assessment will replace the current one from the initial visit
13 month bereavement process will start at the time of death

21. Managing Bereavement Bereavement Activity Report Letters
Visits/ Phone Calls
Care Plans
Bereavement Groups
IDG

22. Bereavement Activity Report
By selecting ‘Bereavement Activity Report’ at the bottom of the Bereavement Console, you can view activity that has been performed for each Contact including calls, letters and visits
This will help ensure the careplan is being followed

23. Letters Initial Letter – 1st week (New) 4 week Letter 3 Month Letter
12 Month/ Anniversary Letter
13 Month Letter
Removing Family Satisfaction Survey (Completed by 3rd Party)

24. Review New Bereavement Letters
These letters should be reviewed and edited before they are batched and printed
To review and edit the letters:
Filter the letter status for ‘New’
Find the letter to be sent out
Select Edit
Verify that the letter is correct; make any changes as needed
Click the status drop-down arrow; then click ‘Edited/ Reviewed’
A history of all of the changes will be stored in ‘View History’

25. Batch Print ‘Reviewed’ Bereavement Letters
Once all of the letters for this time period have been edited and reviewed and the status has been updated, select
‘Batch Print Letters’
Apply the criteria values as necessary then ‘View/ Print’
Each letter will be displayed in a separate tab
If you choose to generate the mailing labels, those will be displayed first

26. New Initial Letter
A new letter has been added to the list of letters to be sent out
This initial letter will generate within the first week following the patient’s death
This letter will include a website that the contact can use to research additional bereavement resources
bereavementresources.org

27. Visits / Phone Calls
Visits and Phone calls can be scheduled to the contact after the death of the patient
A phone visits (72HP) must be scheduled within 3 days of the patient death
Visits can be added through the scheduling console by double clicking on the visit date
72H – Bereavement Visit
72HP – Bereavement Phone Visit

28. Completing the Schedule
Bereavement Coordinator will plot/ schedule the initial phone call within 3 days of patient death (72HP)
Once the visit is scheduled to the appropriate worker, that worker can then add visits through a physician verbal order in PointCare outside of a visit as the option to write a new order within a 72 visit is not available

29. Care Plans
Contacts can be re-assessed as many times as needed as long as the contact is in an active status
This can be done through R2 or PointCare in a Bereavement visit
The history of all risk assessments will remain available in the Bereavement Console
The careplan that is generated from the risk assessment can be edited or customized specifically for the contact

30. Bereavement Groups
Bereavement groups can be tracked through the Bereavement console
To add a Bereavement Group, select add and complete the required form
You may enter in name, date, time, branch, attendees and additional details
Past Group entries may be edited
Bereavement Groups Report

31. Bereavement Groups Report
The Bereavement Coordinator can view/ print a list of the groups that have been entered into HCHB
Select Bereavement Groups Report at the bottom of the console and enter in the appropriate filter criteria
The report will show the date, time, group name and leader and any details that may have been added upon entry
It also calculates the hours and number of attendees

32. IDG
During the admission IDG meeting, the Bereavement Coordinator will be responsible for addressing the initial risk assessment and verifying that the address and phone number are complete for this contact. Also that at least one contact is marked to receive the Satisfaction Survey and the address and phone number is completed for this person as well
The Bereavement Coordinator may wish to discuss the plan of care that was generated based on the risk assessment that was completed for the contact. Any edits can be made at this time through the bereavement console

33. Ending Bereavement
A bereavement contact will remain active in the bereavement console for 13 months
If a contact chooses to end Bereavement early, you can select ‘End Bereavement’ at the bottom of the Bereavement Console
You have the option to continue sending letters if you choose

34. Questions