Dear CAPC eNEWS Subscriber, 

1. Register Now for CAPC’s Spring Management Training Seminar  
2. CAPC and Joint Commission Resources Offering New Palliative Care Audio-Conference Series  
3. Palliative Care Leadership Center (PCLC) Site Visits Begin; Apply Now  
4. Important News From the Palliative Care Leadership Centers 
5. Palliative Care in the News: Coverage from the New York Times, Boston Globe, Group Practice Journal, Minnesota Health Care News, and Oncology Times  
6. Save the Date: Upcoming Events in the Palliative Care Field 
7. Palliative Care Training Programs List 
8. Job Postings on CAPC’s Website 

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1. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF “EARLY BIRD” RATES FOR CAPC’s SPRING MANAGEMENT TRAINING SEMINAR – PLANNING, FUNDING AND SUSTAINING A HOSPITAL-BASED PALLIATIVE CARE PROGRAM: TOOLS AND STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

May 6-8, 2004
Millennium Hotel Minneapolis
Minneapolis, MN 

The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) is pleased to announce its upcoming spring training seminar - an important opportunity to learn how to jumpstart a palliative care program. Hear proven strategies and techniques from nationally renowned experts, and network with your industry peers. 

The conference will provide an engaging, highly practical and comprehensive overview of all aspects of starting and sustaining a successful palliative care program. Leading palliative care experts cover how to plan, organize, fund, manage and operate a program that will: 

• Meet the needs of the growing aging and chronically ill population
• Satisfy many of the 2004 JCAHO standards
• Systematically improve pain and symptom management
• Deliver care concordant with patient and family preferences
• Ease case management burdens of staff
• Enhance the relationship between doctors and nurses through an interdisci  plinary approach
• More efficiently use hospital resources

Healthcare managers including physicians, nurses, administrators and others responsible for the planning and implementation of hospital and health system-based programs are encouraged to attend. This program is approved for CME and Nursing Credit. 

For more information please visit www.capc.org,or call 212-201- 2675 (Lisa Morgan) or e-mail lisa.morgan@mssm.edu.

Space is limited – early registration is encouraged. 

2. NEW AUDIO-CONFERENCE SERIES: QUALITY IMPROVEMENT THROUGH PALLIATIVE CARE 

CAPC and Joint Commission Resources announce an audio-conference series for health care organizations looking to achieve high quality, effective and affordable management of advanced illness. The Quality Improvement Through Palliative Care series starting February 26, 2004 will feature leaders of the country’s premier palliative care programs describing how health care organizations can establish their own programs. They will describe program models and best practices that improve pain and symptom management for the growing number of patients with advanced, chronic illness; deliver care concordant with patient and family preferences; ease case management burdens of staff; and more efficiently use hospital resources.  

Charles von Gunten will conduct the first of the series, Building a Hospital-Based Palliative Care Program: Strategies for Success on February 26, 2004. 

To order by telephone, call JCR Customer Service at (877) 223-6866 or click here to complete the registration form and mail it to:
Joint Commission Resources
P.O. Box 75751
Chicago, IL 60675-5751 

3. SITE VISITS TO THE PALLIATIVE CARE LEADERSHIP CENTERS BEGIN  

Teams from nearly 100 healthcare organizations will begin visiting leading palliative care programs in February 2004. The launch is the beginning of an initiative which will provide comprehensive hands-on training and technical assistance to those institutions ready to establish high-quality palliative care programs. Six Palliative Care Leadership Centers will be hosting site visits and providing ongoing mentoring to hospitals, health systems and hospices already registered for the program. The nationwide initiative, funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and led by the Center to Advance Palliative Care, is expected to fuel further rapid growth in the number of hospital-based palliative care programs. 

Additional institutions are invited to visit the Palliative Care Leadership Centers. To register for a site visit or obtain more information, visit www.capc.org or email pclc@mssm.edu. 

4. IMPORTANT NEWS FROM THE PALLIATIVE CARE LEADERSHIP CENTERS 

UCSF Releases Study on Palliative Care Outpatient Treatment
“The Comprehensive Care Team: A controlled trial of outpatient palliative medicine consultation” was published in the most recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. The controlled trial found that palliative care consultations can lead to improved patient outcomes, including relief of dyspnea, anxiety and sleeplessness, and may reduce the number of times patients must seek primary or urgent care. UCSF Medical Center researchers Michael W. Rabow, MD; Suzanne L. Dibble, DNSc, RN; Steven Z. Pantilat, MD; and Stephen J. McPhee, MD authored the study.

5. PALLIATIVE CARE IN THE NEWS… 

“Too Little Respect Seen For the Dying” by Alice Dembner, Boston Globe January 7, 2004
click here  

“Facing Up to the Inevitable, in Search of a Good Death” by Jane E. Brody, New York Times December 30,2003
click here  

“Effectively Managing Advanced, Chronic Illness through Palliative Care” by Dr. Diane E. Meier, Group Practice Journal November/December, 2003  

“Palliative Care: The reduction of suffering” by Mark Leenay, MD, MS, Minnesota Health Care News December 2003 

“Innovations in End-of-Life Care” by Margot J. Fromer, Oncology Times December 25, 2003 

6. SAVE THE DATE: UPCOMING EVENTS IN THE PALLIATIVE CARE FIELD

For more information on these events, visit www.capc.org and click on “Events/Calendar of Events” or, simply click here. 

• National Conference to Improve End-of-Life Care for African Americans February 26-28, 2004 – click here   for more details. 
• Palliative Medicine 2004 March 11-13, 2004. Sponsored by the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. For more information click here, or call 216-444-5696 or 800-762-8173. 
• The Fifth Annual Palliative Care Symposium March 27, 2004. Saint Barnabas Medical Center, Livingston, NJ. For further information contact the Department of Medical Education, Saint Barnabas Medical Center at (973)-322-5777 or email dpaciga@sbhcs.com.  
• NHPCO’s 5th Clinical Team Conference March 23-25, 2004. Click here for more details 

7. EDUCATION AND TRAINING 

For more information on education, training and fellowships visit www.capc.org and click on “Resources/Education and Training” or, simply click here. 

• Adapting Health Care to Serious Chronic Illness in Last Phase of Life: The Third National Medicaring Quality Improvement Collaborative (MC-QuIC), January through November 2004. For more information click here. 
• Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice
  The Harvard Medical School Center for Palliative Care, co-directed by J. Andrew Billings, MD and Susan D. Block, MD, is offering the Program in Palliative Care Education and Practice on April 27-May 4 and November 10-16, 2004 in Boston, MA. 

The course offers learning experiences for physician- and nurse-educators who wish to become experts in the clinical practice and teaching of palliative care.  

For more information, please visit the website at www.hms.harvard.edu/cdi/pallcare or for an application, please call 617-724-9509 or e-mail to pallcare@partners.org.  

• Mount Sinai Integrated Fellowships in Hematology-Oncology/Palliative Medicine and Geriatrics/Palliative Medicine
  
  This new integrated fellowship is more than a traditional clinical training program. Sponsored by the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the fellowship provides intensive mentoring and rigorous clinical, educational, and research training. It is designed for individuals who want to be positioned for national leadership in their core subspecialty as well as the rapidly growing field of palliative medicine. Applications are now being accepted for academic years 2004-2008. Contact: mailto:palliativecare@mssm.edu, or call 212 241-1446. 

8. PALLIATIVE CARE TRAINING PROGRAMS LIST

CAPC is compiling a list of palliative care programs offering brief clinical training. If you are offering such training, please email your contact information and a brief description of your program to carol.sieger@mssm.edu.  

9. JOB POSTINGS ON CAPC’S WEBSITE 

The CAPC web site is also a resource for palliative care employers and job seekers. The postings are meant to assist healthcare professionals by filling and locating positions within the palliative care field. Visit the job opportunities page (at www.capc.org) to post current openings or look for career opportunities. 

Or, you can post a job opening by simply e-mailing a short description of the position to capc@mssm.edu. Be sure to include contact information and a website link, if possible.