Is your palliative care program poised for national leadership?

Do you want to join a team of palliative care leaders who are making a real impact on access to palliative care across the United States? 

The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) is seeking qualified candidates to become one of the Palliative Care Leadership CentersSM (PCLC) ─ the nation’s premier training and mentoring initiative for palliative care program development and growth. One new pediatric PCLC and one new PCLC from the southern and southwestern region of the U.S. will be selected through a competitive call for proposals.

• What are the Palliative Care Leadership CentersSM (PCLC)?
• Why is CAPC expanding PCLC to Pediatrics and the South and Southwest region of the United States?
• What are the expectations of the Palliative Care Leadership CentersSM ?
• Sources of Support
• Criteria/Eligibility to Apply
• How to Apply
• See if your Program Qualifies

What are the Palliative Care Leadership CentersSM (PCLC)?

In 2003, CAPC launched PCLC with the goal of providing intensive training and mentoring to hospitals and hospices wishing to start and sustain a hospital palliative care program. The goals of PCLC are 1) to increase the number of quality palliative care programs across the United States and 2) to foster their sustainability and growth through leadership development, technical assistance, and use of standardized measures of program impact (e.g. quality of care, satisfaction, and utilization and costs). 

Six exemplary palliative care programs were identified through a national competitive Request for Proposals to serve as PCLC training sites: Palliative Care Center of the Bluegrass in Lexington, KY; Fairview Health Systems in Minneapolis, MN, Mount Carmel Health System in Columbus, OH; VCU Massey Cancer Center in Richmond, VA; Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI; and University of California, San Francisco.

Faculty from these six sites worked with CAPC staff to develop and launch a standard curriculum for PCLC training. Applications, registration, marketing and data management are centralized for all six PCLCs at CAPC. Visiting teams from hospitals and hospices across the country chose a PCLC to visit that best met their needs. At the PCLC training, teams receive 2.5 days of training tailored to priorities identified in a pre-visit needs assessment, in all operational aspects of palliative care program development. The number of teams visiting at any one time varies by PCLC from two teams at a time to as many as twenty. Visiting teams then return home with a specific work plan customized to their institutional characteristics and needs, timelines, and deliverables. Follow-up and troubleshooting is provided through a year of distance mentoring from the PCLC faculty.

More than 600 hospital and hospice teams have attended a PCLC since 2003, and over 80% of PCLC graduates have successfully established a palliative care program by the two-year mark.

PCLC training and mentoring is a demonstrably effective method for the diffusion of the palliative care innovation. PCLC reduces the opportunity costs for palliative care program start-up and delivery and propagates standardized best practices for all areas of program development and growth, including business and financial planning, clinical and staffing models, measurement, and marketing. Marketing campaigns and media coverage have positioned PCLC as a strong brand with a reputation for quality and impact.

PCLC faculty and graduates also join a rich community of palliative care leaders with whom they typically maintain ongoing professional relationships, further contributing to the success of individual leaders and programs. The continued impact of PCLC in strengthening and increasing access to quality palliative care across the country through technical assistance and support for local leaders is important to the future and sustainability of the field.

Why is CAPC expanding PCLC to Pediatrics and the South and Southwest region of the United States?

PCLC training leads to rapid development of successful palliative care programs and widespread implementation of standardized strategies and tools. Though the original six PCLCs will continue to participate in the initiative, CAPC staff and PCLC faculty have identified the need for two new PCLCs focused on pediatrics and states in the south-southwestern region of the United States, specifically Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas. 

What are the expectations of the Palliative Care Leadership CentersSM?

Each PCLC is expected to provide the following:

• Training for teams planning or starting a program: Each PCLC is expected to host and train at least four teams per calendar year. The duration of the training is 2.5 days. Teams can be trained in a large or small group; the six existing PCLCs organize their training schedules in different ways.  PCLC faculty utilize a proprietary 8-module core curriculum for program development that is tailored to the specific learning needs of visiting teams.
• Each PCLC will determine the number and qualifications of local faculty who will provide the 2.5 days of teaching. Typically, a palliative care physician and nurse provide the majority of the training.  All faculty must have intimate knowledge of their program’s history, operational characteristics, successes, and challenges.

• Training for established programs:  By their second year of operation, each new PCLC will be expected to provide training for established programs, using an advanced curriculum currently under development.
• Mentorship: To facilitate the successful development and growth of their palliative care programs, each visiting team receives a year of distance mentoring from their PCLC faculty through scheduled, structured periodic phone calls, email, and other ad hoc communications.
• Moderator/Monitor for CAPCconnectSM Forum: Each PCLC provides faculty moderators for at least one month per year for the CAPCconnectSM online palliative care discussion forum.  PCLC faculty respond to unanswered online questions and add their expertise to the exchange. Each PCLC will receive a modest stipend for this work.
• PCLC Faculty Meeting: All PCLC faculty participate in a once-yearly PCLC Faculty Meeting, providing updates and contributing to quality improvement and strategic planning for the initiative.
• Complete the Letter of Agreement: Institutions designated as new PCLCs are required to complete a Letter of Agreement, which outlines the roles and responsibilities above and delineates the financial/copyright relationship between CAPC and the PCLC.

Sources of Support:

PCLC is a key initiative of the Center to Advance Palliative Care. CAPC provides infrastructure support and centralized administration, content development, marketing, publicity and other economies of scale for the PCLCs. This centralized infrastructure together with income generated by PCLC tuition fees make it feasible for busy palliative care programs to lead a PCLC.

Originally, funding to support PCLC had come from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, JEHT Foundation, and matching grant funding from a consortium of regional funders.

Going forward, individual PCLCs will be supported by:

• Tuition revenue of approximately $3500 per visiting team
• Regional philanthropic and foundation support secured by each individual PCLC, as necessary. CAPC will provide technical assistance for obtaining philanthropic support as requested.
• CAPC has and will continue to support all infrastructure costs necessary for centralized web registration, curriculum development, marketing, data management, communications, and logistical support.

Questions? Please send an email inquiry to pclc@mssm.edu.

Criteria/Eligibility to Apply:

1) Applicants must currently operate a:

• Pediatric palliative care program (may be either a stand-alone pediatric hospital or a pediatric unit within a general hospital)

OR

• Palliative care program located in a hospital in the following Southern and Southwestern states:
• Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma or Texas

2) The palliative care program must be characterized by the following:

• Evidence of national and/or local palliative care leadership such as successful new program development, clinical research and/or comprehensive educational or quality initiatives
• Evidence of palliative care program leader and staff capacity and time commitment to training attendees from across the United States
• Established data collection processes for patient demographics, disease categories, referral sources, disposition, symptoms, satisfaction, length of stay, and financial impact. These processes require routine data collection and analysis of program impact, for a minimum of the past 2 years, to include at least 2 of the following domains:
• financial impact
• patient/family satisfaction
• pain/symptom management
• provider satisfaction with consultation services
• Evidence of administrative capacity necessary to support logistics, scheduling, services, and support for attendees
• Presence of an interdisciplinary Palliative Care Consultation Service, defined by:
• Minimum of 3 years of operation (adult only, combined adult/pediatrics, or pediatric only)
• Adult programs:
• Minimum consult volume of 1 consult per staffed hospital bed per year, for at least the last 2 years
• Minimum of 1 FTE administrative staff
• Minimum of 3 FTE physician and nursing staff (in total) for the consultation service
• Pediatric programs (either a stand alone pediatric hospital or a pediatric unit within a general hospital)
• Minimum of 100 new patient per year for the last two years
• Minimum of 2 FTE physician and nursing staff (in total) for the consultation service
• Minimum of 0.5 FTE administrative staff
• Evidence of educational outreach and program marketing, for at least 2 years, targeted to referring physicians, staff nurses, social service and chaplaincy, within the hospital setting
• An inpatient palliative care unit (fixed or swing bed) and/or outpatient palliative care clinic are preferred, but not required
• The palliative care clinical services must substantially comply with the National Framework and Preferred Practices for Palliative and Hospice Care Quality from the National Quality Forum

http://www.qualityforum.org/pdf/reports/palliative/

• Applicants must be either public entities or nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

How to Apply:

For institutions meeting the above eligibility criteria, the first step in applying is to submit a Letter of Intent.  Programs that best meet the requirements will be invited to submit a full proposal. 

1. Letters of Intent are to be submitted electronically, as a Word or PDF document, or by fax (email preferred). The letter of intent should be accompanied by a separate cover letter including the contact information for the applicant institution/principal investigator.

The Letter of Intent is a template questionnaire, containing questions regarding:

• The nature of the institution’s palliative care program, including the number and type of patients served, clinical and staffing model, referral rates over the past two years, marketing efforts and hospice/hospital partnership model
• The management (reporting structure) and financial support structure of the program
• A description of the program's patient level and administrative data tracking systems for measuring program impact
• Evidence of the program's fiscal stability; and its prospects for sustainability
• The project leaders’ experience with palliative care clinical program development and mentoring to individuals, or to programs starting palliative care programs, or equivalent initiatives

Download Letter of Intent Template
new-pclc-loi.doc

2. As evidence of institutional support and commitment to the PCLC initiative, please submit a Letter of Institutional Support, signed by hospital/hospice senior administrator. This letter may be scanned and emailed as an attachment, or faxed.

Download Letter of Institutional Support
new-pclc-lois.doc

Letters of Intent will be reviewed by a CAPC/PCLC faculty advisory committee, using the following selection criteria:

• The likelihood that an applicant can successfully carry out the training and technical assistance requirements of the PCLC initiative
• Institutional commitment to becoming one of the Palliative Care Leadership CentersSM
• Demonstration of requisite program leadership and staffing capacity

See if your Program Qualifies