Frequently Asked Questions
How does CAPC influence knowledge and skill?
How is CAPC maintaining momentum in the field?
How does CAPC enable advocates to institutionalize palliative care?
What is CAPC?
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) provides health care professionals with the tools, training, and technical assistance necessary to start and sustain successful palliative care programs in hospitals and other health care settings. Located in New York City, CAPC is a national organization dedicated to increasing the availability of quality palliative care services for people facing serious, complex illness.
CAPC is supported by the Aetna Foundation, the Brookdale Foundation, the JEHT Foundation, The John A. Hartford Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Direction and technical assistance are provided by Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York City.
What is CAPC's mission?
The Center to Advance Palliative Care is dedicated to increasing the availability of quality palliative care services in hospitals and other health care settings for people with serious, complex illness, their families and caregivers.
Who is the CAPC constituency?
CAPC’s constituency is highly interdisciplinary and represents an array of professionals and institutions. Thousands of health care providers regularly use its publications and web-based resources, attend training seminars and participate in audio conferences, including those from teaching hospitals, community, faith-based, specialty, or VA hospitals, hospices and managed care organizations, nursing homes and home health agencies. CAPC does not require membership to access its resources.
The diverse audiences that CAPC serves include:
- Physicians
- Nurses
- Administrators
- Social workers
- Educators
- Policymakers
- Health care researchers
- Payers
- Students
- Patients and their families
How does CAPC influence knowledge and skill?
CAPC’s resources on implementing best practices and actionable tools both increase the quality of care provided to the seriously ill and influence the knowledge and skills of learners and established health professionals. CAPC is the leading source of practical expertise and assistance for advocates working to ensure the success of interdisciplinary palliative care teams in their institutions.
How is CAPC maintaining momentum in the field?
CAPC’s capacity to help operationalize palliative care programs was further advanced with the advent of CAPC’s Palliative Care Leadership Centers. Through these exemplary palliative care programs, CAPC enables interdisciplinary teams from health care settings nationwide to visit peer institutions. There they study palliative care in practice and learn through long-term mentoring how to institutionalize palliative care in their own organizations. Experience working on or with a palliative care service will not only effectively educate health professionals across the country, but will also contribute to the social and culture-change movement needed to fundamentally improve our health care system. The demand for the training and support CAPC provides has never been higher. While only a handful of palliative care programs were in existence five years ago, today over 1,100 hospitals in the U.S. provide palliative care services to their patients. In 2003, the American Hospital Association reported a 22% increase in the number of hospital-based palliative care programs over the previous year. Support for hospital-based palliative care also extends to the hospice community. A national survey showed 87% of hospices thought hospices should develop hospital-based palliative care services for patients who do not qualify for or elect hospice services.How does CAPC enable advocates to institutionalize palliative care?
CAPC provides resources that cover all aspects of operationalizing a palliative care program, including:- Making the case for palliative care in terms of improved quality care for patients, increased staff satisfation and demonstrating the financial rationale;
- Defining the optimal delivery model for an institution including staff structure and skills set;
- Expanding services through hospice partnerships;
- Financing the program and estimating patient volume and revenues; and
- Marketing the program to each important audience including hospital administrators, referring physicians, and patients and families.
Over 95% of those completing CAPC conferences state the training made them confident enough to successfully build a palliative care program.
CAPC's resources have repeatedly proven successful in helping palliative care advocates win support for palliative care, recruit interdisciplinary teams, and develop formal programs within their institutions.