The Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) as an audit tool

To ensure quality of care, palliative care programs need to document the ef fectiveness of their relief of physical and psychological distress. The Edm onton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS) is a validated, reliable instrument d eveloped to measure 9 different symptoms in palliative care patients. To se e if symptom management could be compared across institutions, we first rev iewed the charts of 188 successive admissions to the palliative care unit a t St. Boniface General Hospital, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Our study showed that the ESAS is a useful audit tool for assessing patterns of palliative sympto m control that allows for institutional comparisons. Procedures that ensure completeness of data collection remain to be developed.