Favoring patient self-determination is a central goal of palliative care and has motivated recent changes
in federal adult protection law. Therefore, quality of palliative care must be measured also in terms of the
extent to which patient self-determination is respected and improved.
The benefits of early intervention in palliative care being proven, mobile specialized palliative care
teams in acute care hospitals are an important but yet under-researched asset in Switzerland.
With the objective to measure quality of palliative care provision, the present study will evaluate and
compare patient self-determination related outcomes and procedures in 3 different settings: the recently
started palliative care consultant service at the University Hospital of Basel which provides decentralized
consultations for inpatients (i) as well as the corresponding mobile consultation at the University
Hospitals of Geneva (main acute care site Cluse-Roseraie) (ii), and palliative care provision at the
specialized palliative ward (iii) of the Inselspital, Bern.