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Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion

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The Bereaved Family Survey

  • The Bereaved Family Survey (BFS) is comprised of 20 items, including eighteen forced-choice items that focus on specific aspects of care that the Veteran received at a VA inpatient facility during the last month of life. These items evaluate performance on areas of care including communication, emotional and spiritual support, symptom management, and benefits information.
  • Two open-ended questions solicit comments about both positive and negative aspects of care (e.g., how could the care be improved, and what else would you like to share about the Veteran's care during the last month of life?).
  • The BFS is published in four formats (English with female and male pronouns, Spanish with female and male pronouns) in order to accommodate diversity in our sample.
  • The BFS Performance Measure (BFS-PM) consists of a single item on the BFS that asks respondents to provide a global rating of care during the last month of life. The BFS-PM is dichotomized into “Excellent”/9-10 versus all other responses (i.e., Very Good, Good, Fair, Poor”/0-8) and the facility/organizational level BFS-PM score reflects the percentage of respondents that rate care as “Excellent”/9-10. The BFS-PM is endorsed by the National Quality Forum.
  • A slightly modified BFS currently is being piloted in VA-paid contract Community Nursing Homes. 

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