Center to Advance Palliative Care

Hi. Good questions! Regarding #1, you must have a compelling business plan which secures the resources you need, or will need, over 3-4 years, as demand for your services grows. This is absolutely necessary in order to prevent your staff from burning out early in your development. There are several sections in this CAPC Connect forum, as well as under Tools on the main CAPC website (as well as at the forthcoming conference in Texas) which address how to achieve this and how to nurture and protect your program staff. Regarding #2, there are several posts under the "Designing a Program" section of this forum as well as other sections which describe outpatient services. In the published literature the best resource is the UCSF controlled trial, Rabow et al., Arch Intern Med. 2004;164:83-91. Also described in JPM 6 (3), Rabow et al., 2003, http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/109662103322144862 See also Meier & Beresford JPM 2008 Jul;11(6):823-8. Hope this helps! Brian Cassel, VCU PCLC, 804-628-1926, jbcassel@vcu.edu