Biella's Palliative Care Network operates within the local Public Hospital, in patients homes and at the Hospice "Orsa Maggiore": approximately 200,000 people live in the Biella Area. Since the very start of the Network's activities, a programme was implemented to evaluate the quality of the care that is being delivered. For the outcome evaluation, we are using both quantitative and qualitative methods, with the aim to obtain a more complete analysis of the quality of care in our palliative care network. Quality of life: during the year 2002 the tool used for the recording of the quality of life was the Therapy Impact Questionnaire, by means of two measurements taken at the start of the assistance and a week later. We observed a quite satisfactory control of the more frequent physical and psychological symptoms, mainly for the higher levels of suffering, both at home and in hospice. Family satisfaction: for measuring the satisfaction of family members, we prepared a 17-item evaluation questionnaire which gets sent to the home of the patient about 2 months after death, with a pre-stamped envelope for posting. The percentage of replies obtained was satisfactory (more than 65%) and a validation process of the questionnaire is in progress with other palliative care centres. The analysis of two years results gave us the opportunity to intervene on some aspects of the organisation of our Network. Focus groups with family members: we have organised a series of focus groups (3 times a year) with groups of family members of patients that died in Hospice or at home. The focus groups aim mainly at a qualitative analysis of the experiences relative to the last days of life and the possible interventions aimed at improving the quality of the service. In our opinion, the association of qualitative-type evaluation instruments with quantitative-type ones, appears to be the best solution to providing a more exhaustive picture of the outcome of care offered at life's end.