4.5 Death of a Client Policy and Procedure

In the unfortunate event of a client’s demise, the staff must be trained and have the necessary guidance on what actions they need to take to ensure that the death is dealt with in a respectful, sensitive and dignified manner.

Policy

Choice Community Health will ensure that proper steps are taken to manage the unfortunate case of the death of a client in a respectful, sensitive and dignified manner.

Procedure

In the event of the death of a client, Choice Community Health staff will ensure that the family, relevant authorities, doctor or medical staff are informed. In case the death is unexpected or seems suspicious, the protocols from the Incident Management policy and procedure and Serious Incident Response Scheme policy and procedure must be followed. Staff will contact the client’s doctor or other available medical personnel to attend the client and pronounce life extinct.

The Care Manager is responsible for notifying next of kin or family members of the deceased client.

End of Life Decisions

Clients are given the option to communicate end of life decisions during their care provision. The relevant decisions will be documented in the client’s Care Plan and will be acted on as appropriate.

Unspent Home Care Fees

The details on how the unspent funds from the deceased client will be transferred as discussed in the Client exit policy and procedure.

Supporting Documents

Documents, forms and templates referenced in or related to this policy and procedure are listed below:

Incident Management policy and procedure

SIRS policy and procedure

Client Exit policy and procedure

Procedure Ownership and Revision

The Governing Body is responsible for ensuring the implementation of this policy and procedure. The individual responsibilities may be delegated to executive body members.

This procedure will be reviewed and approved by Governing Body on a regular basis (annually). If there are legislative or organisational changes, it will need to be reviewed more frequently. The current revision history is recorded in the table below: