The National Quality Forum (NQF) has released its National Framework and Preferred Practices for Palliative and Hospice Care Quality. The NQF recently identified palliative and hospice care as national priority areas for healthcare quality improvement.

Intended to be the first step in developing a comprehensive quality measurement and reporting system for palliative care and hospice services, the report highlights consensus standards approved by NQF's more than 300 member organizations. As such, the voluntary consensus standards have special legal standing. NQF reports are highly influential.

The framework is based in part on the Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care, issued in May 2004 by the National Consensus Project (NCP), a consortium of palliative care and hospice organizations including the Center to Advance Palliative Care.

The executive summary of the report and list of preferred practices are located on the NQF web site: www.qualityforum.org.

CAPC is offering a unique opportunity for peer-to-peer learning and networking, a poster session combined with reception, at the new CAPC seminar for active programs:

Strengthening Your Palliative Care Program:
A Level II Seminar for Growth & Sustainability
June 21-23 2007
Orlando, Florida

Success Stories: Creative Resolutions to Common Obstacles will feature posters that tell the story of the resolution of programs' problems or obstacles. Or, they will describe innovations that proved successful.

Access abstract submission instructions here.

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION: April 16, 2007

The Palliative Care Leadership Centers^SM (PCLC), an initiative launched by CAPC only three years ago, have reached a milestone. They have trained over 500 healthcare institutions to start a palliative care program. Of the institutions that have trained, 79% were hospitals, 20% were hospices and 75% sent a finance person along with their clinicians.

Six leading palliative care programs, PCLCs provide on-site intensive training and mentoring to help start and expand hospital palliative care programs in the U.S. The curriculum focuses on eight essential financial and operational aspects of building a palliative care program, including hospital needs assessment; finance and business planning; choosing organizational models; measuring clinical and financial impact; ensuring and mananging growth; and marketing.

"The large number of institutions that have trained at a PCLC reflects the increasing recognition that palliative care effectively addresses top healthcare concerns such as quality improvement, the aging boom and the need to manage the care of patients with advanced, chronic illness," says Dr. Diane E. Meier, Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC).

The six PCLCs are:

• Fairview Health Services - Minneapolis, MN
• Medical College of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, WI
• Mount Carmel Health System - Columbus, OH
• Palliative Care Center of the Bluegrass - Lexington, KY
• University of California, San Francisco - San Francisco, CA
• VCU Massey Cancer Center - Richmond, VA

The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) launched its new website for patients and families, www.getpalliativecare.org at the end of January 2007. In its first month, getpalliativecare.org received over 3,500 unique visitors, as well as a wealth of positive feedback from both the public and professionals in the field.

Designed to provide patients, family caregivers, doctors and policymakers with clear, concise palliative care information, the site offers a downloadable handout for patients and their families. Clinicians can easily reproduce the handout in color or black & white. It is available at www.getpalliativecare.org from the homepage or the page for clinicians.

To access this new palliative care resource for patients and families, click here.

Save-the-Date for CAPC's Fall Seminar:

A Level I Seminar

Building Palliative Care Programs in Hospitals:
Tools and Strategies for Success

November 1-3, 2007
San Francisco, California

This seminar is renowned as the field's basic primer for planning and starting a palliative care program.

Who should attend?

Physicians, nurses, administrators and others responsible for planning, exploring or starting palliative care programs

What will you learn?

• Making the financial case for palliative care
• Creating compelling business plans
• Developing effective marketing techniques
• Strategies for developing hospital/hospice partnerships
• And more!

Dr. Diane Meier, Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, Director of the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Professor of Geriatrics and Internal Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, was featured in two segments of the nationally syndicated program, Open Mind, in November 2006.

These segments will be rebroadcast on CUNY in the New York, NY area on the following dates:

March 26 - segment 1
April 1 - segment 1
April 2 - segment 2
April 8 - segment 2

The Social Work in Hospice and Palliative Care Network is seeking nominations for those social workers in the areas of research, education, practice and policy whose contributions have reached far and wide in providing quality care to the seriously ill, dying and bereaved.

This unique Project on Death in America (PDIA) Social Work Leadership Award, made possible by the Open Society Institute, includes a monetary grant of $1,500, publishing opportunities, conference registration and travel expenses to present the work. Completed nomination packets must be received no later than March 31, 2007.

For application information and to learn more, please visit http://www.swhpn.org/award/ or contact Karen Johnson, Project Administrator, at (212) 851-2274.

Attention Hospice and Palliative Administrators:

The National Board for Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses (NBCHPN^®) is considering the development of a certification program for administrators in hospice and palliative care programs. The administrator/manager may have direct clinical responsibilities, but those would be secondary to the oversight responsibility.

To access the survey, please click on the link below. If clicking on the link does not take you to the survey, copy the entire link's text, paste it into your internet browser's address field, and press enter. Once you reach the survey's welcome page, type in the password listed below. (Please note that the password is case-sensitive.)

Link to the survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp? u=286173031640

Password (case-sensitive): NBCHPNrds2007

Please complete the survey by April 9, 2007.

It is estimated that the survey will take about 30 minutes to complete. Your time and input are greatly appreciated.

If you experience technical problems with the survey, please contact Mike Clark at NBCHPN-RDS@goAMP.com. If you would like to find out more about NBCHPN®, please contact nbchpn@hpna.org.

Brink, S. Life on her own terms. Los Angeles Times; February 2007.

To access the article, click here.

Bingham, R. Improving communication in the ICU about end-of-life care in the ICU reduces symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression in family members. NIH News; February 2007.

To view this feature, click here.

Mark your calendars for this upcoming audio conference with Dr. Diane E. Meier . . .

Quality Measures 101
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
1:30 - 2:30 PM Eastern

Featured Speaker:
Diane E. Meier, MD, FACP
Director, Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Director, Center to Advance Palliative Care

Learn More and Register