Program helps transition patients from hospital room to bedroom

Program helps transition patients from hospital room to bedroom: HAZARD — Patients at the Hazard and Whitesburg ARH hospitals who may require more help after they go home now may not have to worry about life after discharge if they qualify for a new trans...

Palliative Care — A Shifting Paradigm

Palliative care focuses on relieving suffering and achieving the best possible quality of life for patients and their family caregivers. It involves the assessment and treatment of symptoms; support for decision making and assistance in matching treatments to informed patient and family goals; practical aid for patients and their family caregivers; mobilization of community resources to ensure a secure and safe living environment; and collaborative and seamless models of care across a range of care settings (i.e., hospital, home, nursing home, and hospice). Palliative care is provided both within the Medicare hospice benefit (hospice palliative care) and outside it (nonhospice palliative care). Nonhospice palliative care is offered simultaneously with life-prolonging and curative therapies for persons living with serious, complex, and life-threatening illness. Hospice palliative care becomes appropriate when curative treatments are no longer beneficial, when the burdens of these treatments exceed their benefits, or when patients are entering the last weeks to months of life.

Comprehensive palliative care services integrate the expertise of a team of providers from different disciplines to address the complex needs of seriously ill patients and their families. Members of a palliative care team typically include professionals from medicine, nursing, and social work, with additional support from chaplaincy and professionals in nutrition, rehabilitation, pharmacy, and other professional disciplines, as needed. These programs are now available at more than 80% of large U.S. hospitals (those with more than 300 beds), where most Americans receive their care during complex and advanced illness.

Research shifts a long-held paradigm that has limited access to palliative care to patients who were predictably and clearly dying. The new approach recognizes that life-threatening illness, whether it can be cured or controlled, carries with it significant burdens of suffering for patients and their families and that this suffering can be effectively addressed by modern palliative care teams. Perhaps unsurprisingly, reducing patients' misery may help them live longer. We now have both the means and the knowledge to make palliative care an essential and routine component of evidence-based, high-quality care for the management of serious illness.


Amy S. Kelley, M.D., M.S.H.S., and Diane E. Meier, M.D.

NHPCO

National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization

Mission: To lead and mobilize social change for improved care at the end of life.

 

Vision:  A world where individuals and families facing serious illness, death, and grief will experience the best that humankind can offer.

 

Values: NHPCO believes in: Service… engaging customers; Respect… honoring others; Excellence… exceeding expectations; Collaboration…fostering partnerships; Stewardship… managing resources

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) is the largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. The organization is committed to improving end of life care and expanding access to hospice care with the goal of profoundly enhancing quality of life for people dying in America and their loved ones. 
Considered to be the model for quality, compassionate care at the end of life, hospice care involves a team-oriented approach of expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support expressly tailored to the patient's wishes. Emotional and spiritual support also is extended to the family and loved ones. Generally, this care is provided in the patient's home or in a home-like setting operated by a hospice program. Medicare, private health insurance, and Medicaid in most states cover hospice care for patients who meet certain criteria.
With headquarters in Alexandria, Virginia, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization advocates for the terminally ill and their families. It also develops public and professional educational programs and materials to enhance understanding and availability of hospice and palliative care; convenes frequent meetings and symposia on emerging issues; provides technical informational resources to its membership; conducts research; monitors Congressional and regulatory activities; and works closely with other organizations that share an interest in end of life care.
The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization was founded in 1978 as the National Hospice Organization. The organization changed its name in February 2000 to include palliative care. Many hospice care programs added palliative care to their names to reflect the range of care and services they provide, as hospice care and palliative care share the same core values and philosophies. Defined by the World Health Organization in 1990, palliative care seeks to address not only physical pain, but also emotional, social, and spiritual pain to achieve the best possible quality of life for patients and their families. Palliative care extends the principles of hospice care to a broader population that could benefit from receiving this type of care earlier in their illness or disease process. To better serve individuals who have advanced illness or are terminally ill and their families, many hospice programs encourage access to care earlier in the illness or disease process. Health care professionals who specialize in hospice and palliative care work closely with staff and volunteers to address all the symptoms of illness, with the aim of promoting comfort and dignity.

Hospice Medication Alert: Vicodin® and Generic Substitution

Hospice Medication Alert: Vicodin® and Generic Substitution: Dr. Julia Harder, PharmD, CGP

At Outcome Resources, we have noticed many costly claims for brand name Vicodin (hydrocodone/acetaminophen). Typically, when a prescriber writes a prescription for a brand-name medication for which a generic equivalent is available, the dispensing pharmacy will substitute the generic version, unless the prescriber specifically indicates on the prescription that no generic substitution is allowed...