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In Reply To: Development of Palliative Care Unit
Next Reply: Re:Re:Development of Palliative Care Unit

Post Re:Development of Palliative Care Unit
Author: kkerr [CAPC/PCLC Faculty]
Date: May 8, 2008 3:55 pm
Hello,
Congratulations on your growing program! I'm guessing you envision a dedicated unit with a stand-alone staff and budget, vs a virtual unit (virtual unit = beds within an exiting hospital unit that are preferentially made available to pallative care service patients, but which can be used by any acute care patient; no separate staff / budget / infrastructure.) If you are going the dedicated unit route there is a nice example of the prcoess used to determine staffing needs on the CAPC Web site:

http://www.capc.org/building-a-hospital-based-palliative-care-program/implementation/staffing/index_html/view?searchterm=physician%20patient%20ratio%20unit

Also, keep in mind that not every patient your consultation service sees would be appropriate for (or interested in) transfer to your unit. Page 12 of the comprehnsive tutorial in the "financing a program" section has a nice table that gives an estimate of the number of "unit appropriate" consultations your service would need to see to support a dedicated unit.

http://www.capc.org/building-a-hospital-based-palliative-care-program/financing/tutorial.xls/file_view

Best wishes,
Kathleen Kerr
Senior Analyst
University of California San Francisco
Palliative Care Leadership Center
Replies: order by [Date] [Author] [Subject]
Re:Re:Development of Palliative Care Unit (by carnold on 05/08/2008)
Thanks so much for your input. I was aware that not all patients would want to be moved to our unit and for some it wouldn't be appropriate, that's why we plan on continuing to utilize the scatter-bed approach as well. Thanks for reminding me about the info. on CAPC website, I had forgotten that it was there. Cheryl Arnold, RN CHPN Palliative Care Coordinator St. Mary's Medical Center Evansville, IN 47715

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