Dying in Australian hospitals: will a separate national clinical standard improve the delivery of quality care?

While it is commonly stated that for most people the preferred place of death is their own homes, the actual reality is that most people will die in hospitals. This is both by choice and necessity. However, for many, the care that they receive would not necessarily align with their expectations. The need to improve the quality of health care at the end of life has been acknowledged by the Australian Commission for Safety and Quality in Healthcare with the release of a recent discussion paper. It is presumed this is a prelude to the release of another quality standard specifically for end of life care. The aim of this paper is to question whether such a standard is likely to result in the hoped for improvements in care.