Recipes for Success from Palliative Care Programs (part one)
CAPC's podcast, Palliative Care Program Spotlight, highlights successes and challenges faced by CAPC member organizations of all sizes and settings. Each episode features an in-depth interview with a palliative care program leader or specialist covering common themes such as managing growth, improving the referral process, team wellness, organizational buy-in, relationship building, and much more.
Over the past four seasons, we have captured the work of forty successful programs across the country, and dove deep into their "recipes of success", so that other program leaders can learn and adopt similar strategies as their programs evolve. In part one of this blog post, we're excited to resurface episodes from the past and present, based on trends that we found amongst programs, and in the field:
Starting and Growing a Palliative Care Program
Developing a strong palliative care program takes time. In some cases, it may take years to find the right staff, build relationships within an organization and community, and ultimately change perceptions or processes. In these episodes, leaders discuss challenges, lessons learned, and triumphs in creating and sustaining new programs:
- Building a Program from the Ground Up, featuring Butler Health System (Pennsylvania)
- Establishing and Growing a Palliative Care Team, featuring Phelps County Regional Medical Center (Missouri)
- Taking a Team to the Next Level, featuring Boston Medical Center (Massachusetts)
- Building a Palliative Care Program, featuring Elmhurst Hospital (Illinois)
Building Connections with Referring Physicians
A team’s ability to work well with frontline clinicians is important for success. Learn to navigate these relationships, and encourage an increase in referrals through these episodes:
- How to Create a Culture of Palliative Care, featuring Partners in Care (Oregon)
- Breaking Down Barriers with Referring Clinicians, featuring Bridgeport Hospital (Connecticut)
- Building Relationships to Grow a Palliative Care Team, featuring St Joseph Hospitals Hospital Medical Center (New Jersey)
- Improving the Referral Process, featuring Grady Health Systems (Georgia)
Hiring, Training, and Retaining Staff
Are you looking for the right staff member to join your team? Once they start, properly training your team, and helping your staff avoid burnout and stay energized is one of the most common obstacles that program leaders face, due to the demanding and often times challenging work of palliative care. These episodes offer tips for how to support staff, even during the busiest times:
- Hiring, Training, and Retaining Palliative Care Staff, featuring Sentara Health in Norfolk (Virginia)
- Retaining and Training Staff, featuring Providence St. Peter Hospital (Washington)
- Team Wellness and Education, featuring Johns Hopkins Hospital (Maryland)
- Team Wellness: Avoiding and Overcoming Burnout, featuring Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center (Washington)
Getting Your Organization’s Buy-in
When a program has the support and backing from its organization, it can make a world of a difference. With an enormous growth in health systems and evolving changes in health care payments, getting your organization to support the value of your program has never been more important. Many palliative care teams across the country are brainstorming innovative ways to make the case for what palliative care can offer to their C-suite. Hear from a few of them:
- Facing the Challenge of Budget Barriers, featuring: Yuma Regional Medical Center (Arizona)
- Palliative Care from the Top Down, featuring Institute for Human Caring at Providence St. Joseph’s Health (Montana)
- Turning a Palliative Care Program Around, featuring Emory Palliative Care Center at Emory St. Joseph’s Hospital (Georgia)
- Getting Institutional Buy-in, featuring CHI Health Palliative Care (Nebraska)
Stay tuned for part two of this blog post. In the meantime, to listen to other episodes, visit CAPC’s Program Spotlight page.