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CAPC Palliative Care Discussion Forum
Designing a Program

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Post The Role of a Palliative Care Director
Author: drjeckyl
Date: Feb 14, 2008 3:31 pm
Hi everyone, I'm a hospitalist and a former hem/onc fellow who is at the beginning stages of developing a palliative care program at a 300 bed community-based hospital. My CEO is in support of starting up an in-patient/consult service this year, and as the program develops, broadening the scope of services. What role would i play as a "director" and what recommendations would anyone have to establish the in-patient consult service first? Thanks, Dr Lou Wright.
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Re:The Role of a Palliative Care Director (by lynceronsky on 02/20/2008)
Hi, The majority of programs do begin with a consult service. Congratulations on CEO support! There are administrative and clinical aspects to program direction. There are examples job descriptions for medical directors on the capc website, though actual roles reflect local needs. See sample job descriptions here: http://www.capc.org/tools-for-palliative-care-programs/sample-job-descriptions Attending a Palliative Care Leadership Center, focuses on operational topics and has helped many new programs achieve a successful beginning. See this link for more info about PCLC training: http://www.capc.org/palliative-care-leadership-initiative/ Clinical training in palliative care is important, as well as developing processes to work with the interdisciplinary team. Outcome measurement, marketing, continuity planning and education are additional important aspects. Developing a workplan to address all program components and identify needed resources is critical for program success. Lyn Ceronsky, MS, APRN, BC Systems Director Fairview Health Services Palliative Care Leadership Center Minneapolis, MN
Re:The Role of a Palliative Care Director (by tcousounis on 02/24/2008)
Ms. Ceronsky's suggestions for job description resources and attending a CAPC program make for a solid start. The keys to success, we've found through study and experience, are to align expectations and to create an organizational structure that enables easy scaling to accomodate growth. Job specifications based upon program metrics generally produce the best results , that is to say, the role of program director is best determined by identifying and incorporating into the position profile the program expectations from at least three and not more than five "stakeholders', including the CEO. This can best be done done by an outside consultant who will not inject "bias" into the assessment. Tim Cousounis, MDvantage Palliative Care Group tcousounis@digital-action.com

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