The post below (Improving Late-Life Care...) appeared in 2010, pondering what outcomes constituted exemplary performance within a community as it pertained to late-life care practices. Over the intervening decade, the analysts at DAI Palliative Care Group have been gathering a few more insights.
To name a few:
- Palliative care specialists within these communities recognize life’s completion can present serious financial challenges. Their competencies "extend" into resourceful coordination of reimbursement so that access to care is not limited by unaffordable services.
- Palliative care leadership in these communities believe in "positive dissatisfaction, that is, they always strive to do better. They are insistent upon measuring quality, closely monitoring outcomes, implementing improvements, and tracking patient and family satisfaction.
- These community exemplars commit themselves to the three As of access: affordability, availability, and awareness.
- Palliative care specialists within these communities recognize life’s completion can present serious financial challenges. Their competencies "extend" into resourceful coordination of reimbursement so that access to care is not limited by unaffordable services.
- Palliative care leadership in these communities believe in "positive dissatisfaction, that is, they always strive to do better. They are insistent upon measuring quality, closely monitoring outcomes, implementing improvements, and tracking patient and family satisfaction.
- These community exemplars commit themselves to the three As of access: affordability, availability, and awareness.
We'll explore these communities, and practices, in more detail in future posts. In the meantime, your thoughts and reactions are appreciated.
Improving Late-Life Care - Do We Know Exemplary Performance?
We're starting to learn more about late-life care, thanks in large measure to the Dartmouth Atlas Project.
For example, in a recent report Trends and Variation in End-of-Life Care for Medicare Beneficiaries
with Severe Chronic Illness (read here), we learned more about the final 30 days of life of a patient with cancer. More than half (54.7%) were hospitalized during that period. 5.6% received life-sustaining procedures. Half of the final month was spent in hospice (11 days) and an acute-care hospital bed (4 days). Interesting, but without context. Likely, the past 10 years has seen considerable improvement in these measures. How much more improvement should we expect? Can hospitalizations be cut in half? If so, what might be the most effective methods? A transitional care document , like POLST? A provider reimbursement structure where collaboration, rather than procedures, is more highly valued? A community palliative care officer who's accountable for late-life care across settings within a specific community or region? Any of these, or all of them?
And how much better can the health care system do to encourage earlier referral to palliative services, so that greater than 11 days out of the final 30 can be spent under hospice care? As always, your ideas and opinions are invited.
with Severe Chronic Illness (read here), we learned more about the final 30 days of life of a patient with cancer. More than half (54.7%) were hospitalized during that period. 5.6% received life-sustaining procedures. Half of the final month was spent in hospice (11 days) and an acute-care hospital bed (4 days). Interesting, but without context. Likely, the past 10 years has seen considerable improvement in these measures. How much more improvement should we expect? Can hospitalizations be cut in half? If so, what might be the most effective methods? A transitional care document , like POLST? A provider reimbursement structure where collaboration, rather than procedures, is more highly valued? A community palliative care officer who's accountable for late-life care across settings within a specific community or region? Any of these, or all of them?
And how much better can the health care system do to encourage earlier referral to palliative services, so that greater than 11 days out of the final 30 can be spent under hospice care? As always, your ideas and opinions are invited.
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