The evidence is clear: palliative care improves quality of life for patients—and quality outcomes for health care organizations—resulting in consistent reductions in the costs of care.

Designed to help make the case with organization leaders, health plans, colleagues, and community partners, the materials in this toolkit can be used to make the case for palliative care investment in your setting. To help estimate the value of your hospital palliative care program, try our interactive Hospital Impact Calculator.

What’s in the Toolkit

Market-tested definition of palliative care and quality guidelines for a palliative care program in any care setting.

About Palliative Care

Definition of palliative care and how it improves quality of life for patients living with a serious illness, and their families.

National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, 4th edition

The National Consensus Project (NCP) Clinical Practice Guidelines are the national standard for high quality palliative care. National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care, 2018.

One-pagers, brochures, and case studies on the quality and cost impact of palliative care.

Palliative Care Ensures Value

One-page infographic to introduce your organization leaders, referrers, and health plans to the quality, satisfaction, and utilization improvements resulting from palliative care.

The Case for Hospital Palliative Care

This publication includes key messages for health system leaders about the value of hospital palliative care, applicable across settings.

The Positive Financial Impact of Hospital Palliative Care

In addition to improving quality of care for people living with serious illness, robust palliative care services lead to strong financial performance across many parameters.

The Case for Community-Based Palliative Care

The majority of people with serious illness are neither dying nor hospitalized. So, palliative care needs to be available in all settings outside hospitals—in medical offices and clinics, in post-acute and long-term care facilities, and in patient homes. This publication includes key data on the value of community palliative care, program profiles, and a case example to use with leadership.

Pediatric Palliative Care: Making the Case

Slide presentation on the value of pediatric palliative care includes action steps to support pediatric palliative care integration with disease treatment across the continuum.

The Case for Improving Communication and Symptom Management Skills

This publication makes the case for training both palliative care and nonpalliative care specialists in communication and symptom management skills. Training in these skills results in measurably better quality of care, improved patient and family experience, and more time spent at home and out of hospitals.

The Evidence for High-Quality Palliative Care

One-pager articulating the various benefits of palliative care, compiled by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM).

Serious Illness Strategies: Driving Value in High-Need Populations

A summary of implementation best practices for health plans and ACOs driving value in the care of high-need, seriously ill populations.

Pitch decks, national data, and effective presentation strategies.

Hospital Palliative Care Impact Calculator

Free, interactive tool to help you estimate savings attributable to your hospital palliative care team.

Customizable Hospital Palliative Care Impact Calculator
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Downloadable spreadsheet with embedded calculations that allow the user to input their actual salary costs and billing mix to calculate the financial impact specific to each program. Includes comparisons to key national averages.

The Value of Palliative Care: Powerpoint Presentation

Customizable template for making the case for reliable availability of palliative care. Center to Advance Palliative Care, 2019.

Ten Tips: How to Make the Pitch to Organizational Leaders for Community-Based Palliative Care
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This document provides tips for making the case to the C-suite to support a community-based palliative care (CBPC) program.

Partnership Introductory Meeting or Pitch Deck
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A template presentation to introduce your services, their benefits, and your "ask" for support.

Home-Based Palliative Care ROI Calculator
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A streamlined calculator for modeling return on investment based on home-based palliative care program assumptions.

8 Ways to Keep Your Palliative Care Program Off the Chopping Block

Tips for how to get your palliative care program off the chopping block when your organization is thinking conservatively and looking to cut costs.

How to Show Your Administrators that Your Palliative Care Program Improves Value
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Demonstrating value to leadership in a large health system with references to cost savings and metrics for providers and payers. Presenter: Thomas J. Smith, MD, FACP, FASCO, FAAHPM March 2017.

Case Study: ProHealth Home-based Palliative Care in an ACO
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ProHealth, a multi-specialty physician practice ACO, uses home palliative care for high-need patients.

Case Study: Sharp Healthcare
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Sharp Healthcare, an integrated network of hospitals and clinicians, incorporates a home palliative care intervention to meet the needs of complex patients.

Case Study: Trinity Health Improving Value in a Large Health System

Trinity Health's journey to expand access to specialty palliative care across settings, and train all clinicians to identify and address sources of suffering for patients with serious illness.

Using Palliative Care to Improve Quality of Life and Financial Performance

In this on demand webinar, Using Palliative Care to Improve Quality of Life and Financial Performance, hear from leaders across the country as they describe their palliative care strategies.

Tools to make the case for palliative care resources and financial partnerships, including the palliative care evidence base and downloadable tools for presenting the case. Includes 27 resources.
Improving operations and training clinical staff to identify, stratify, and meet the needs of patients living with serious illness at the population level. Includes 24 resources.
Resources for palliative care programs working with payers and other financial collaborators, including contracting resources. Includes 14 resources.

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