Retirement and nursing homes XX  Professional complaint management is an important preventive mechanism for avoiding conflict. XX  Residents should be supported in submitting verbal, written or anonymous complaints. XX  Complaints should be followed up on without delay. Misunderstandings and unfulfilled wishes must be clarified, the lack of information rectified, and solvable problems should also be addressed quickly. 2.1.4 Palliative care in nursing homes is organisational process Hospice culture and palliative care A project on “Hospice Culture and Palliative Care in Nursing Homes” (“Hospizkultur und Palliative Care in Pflegeheimen”) was developed by Hospiz Österreich (Hospice Austria) in 2004 based on experience gained in Vorarlberg. Experience has been gathered on model projects in Vorarlberg, Lower Austria, Salzburg, Vienna, Styria and Burgenland for more than a decade and is documented in the form of quality objectives, structural and process standards and guidelines. The Austrian Institute for Health (Österreichisches Bundesinstitut für Gesundheitswesen) published a process manual for hospice and palliative facilities for adults that was developed with the involvement of expert teams from the Hospiz Austria umbrella organisation and employees from the hospice and palliative facilities. The manual is used by the NPM for defining assessment criteria. Hospice culture and palliative care is an approach that enhances the quality of life of those, who are in the final phase of their lives and enables them to pass away with dignity. Holistic nursing, palliative medical care and pain therapy to ease the symptoms accommodates the mental, social and spiritual wishes of the patients. With the help of a specifically developed communication tool – the care dialogue – residents’ wishes are voiced in order to facilitate advance planning. This type of care requires special knowledge and experience in treating pain and dementia as well as communication that recognises and respects the special situation of the residents. Interdisciplinary collaboration, above all between the medical and nursing staff, and the involvement of close relatives play a key role. The Hospice Culture and Palliative Care in Nursing Homes project is therefore a comprehensive, two-year organisational development process focusing on hospice and palliative care. Part of this process is the further training of 80% of the staff from all professions according to the palliative geriatric curriculum, further training within the framework of the Care Dialogue (Vorsorgedialog) project - an integral part of hospice culture and palliative care - and the continued development of procedures in nursing homes to better satisfy residents’ needs during the end-of-life process. Advance care planning for the final phase of life is an important condition for enabling 32