Showing posts with label Advanced Palliative Care Community. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advanced Palliative Care Community. Show all posts

Monday, June 22, 2009

Advanced Palliative Care Communities (APCCs) - What Distinguishes Them?

What is it about Advanced Palliative Care Communities (APCCs) read here that distinguishes them from other communities (or regions) when it comes to providing care to those with end-stage disease? One is the presence of an organized provider network collaborating on the delivery of palliative care in many settings of care throughout the community. Another is the documentation of, and adherence to, patient preferences. Think POLST or similar tools. Surely, these attributes do not come about on their own. We’ve looked more closely at the deployment of palliative medicine specialists in these communities (APCCs) and have found greater numbers (than in other similar communities) of physicians practicing palliative medicine and greater use of those physicians in clinical consultative roles in multiple settings throughout the community. What does not matter, we've found, is the organizational sponsor (or employer) of these palliative medicine physicians.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Choosing Where to Live Based Upon End-of-Life Preferences

A health executive new to hospice asked the other day, in advance of assuming an executive role of a palliative care organization in a resort community, what role should physicians play in the end-of-life care in the community? I replied a small one (relative to the role that specialists were presently serving). But a larger one for palliative medicine physicians. He asked why that wasn't the case at present. Because patients don't choose their regions they live in based on the amount of care they wish to receive in their last six months of life, I replied.
I wonder, will there be a day when those choices are made?