Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care

A. ORIGINAL TOOL:

Last Acts Fact Sheet - Care Beyond Cure: Palliative Care and Hospice
http://www.lastacts.org/files/misc/Hospice&palliativecare.pdf
Last Acts has compiled a series of "fact sheets" and "tip sheets" that present basic information on a variety of aspects of end-of-life care. One of these fact sheets, Care Beyond Cure, lays out the tenets of palliative care in a clear and candid way that family members may find helpful. Adobe Acrobat Reader is needed to view this document. Download Acrobat for free at www.adobe.com

B. WEBSITES RELATED TO THIS ISSUE'S CONTRIBUTORS:

American Hospital Association (AHA)
www.aha.org/circleoflife/col_Home.asp
AHA is a key sponsor of the 2001 Circle of Life Award. Visit this site for more information about last year's award and/or to apply for this year's award.

Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC)
www.capcmssm.org/
Established by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to promote wider access to excellent palliative care in hospitals and health systems in the US, CAPC aims to provide assistance in the planning, development, and implementation of hospital and health system based palliative care programs. Among the variety of resources and materials on this site, is information from the Center’s Fall Forum 2001 Workshop on Hospital-Hospice Partnerships as presented by Diane Meier, MD, author of the editorial of this issue of Innovations and Martha Twaddle, MD, featured innovator in this issue. There is also a Real Audio link to Dr. Twaddle’s September 2001 grand rounds conference call on this subject. For these downloads go to www.capcmssm.org/content/137/ The CAPC/NHPCO joint publication, Hospital-Hospice Partnerships in Palliative Care is available for download at www.capcmssm.org/content/165/

Palliative CareCenter & Hospice of the North Shore (PCCHNS)
www.carecenter.org/
PCCHNS is one of the 2001 winners of the AHA Circle of Life Award, recognized for their efforts to provide quality end-of-life care across a variety of settings. They are included in the CAPC / NHPCO jointly sponsored report that explores and describes the challenges to hospital-hospice collaboration. The featured innovation in this issue examines the origin, rationale, barriers, and strategies of sustaining a multi-faceted program.

Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM)
www.mssm.edu
The Mount Sinai School of Medicine in Manhattan stresses the humanistic and ethical aspects of medical practice as well as problem-solving strategies. Diane Meier, MD teaches in the departments of geriatrics and medicine, as well as serving as the director of the Lilian and Benjamin Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute. See www.mssm.edu/geriatrics/hertzberg.shtml for more information on the institute.

United Hospital Fund Hospital Palliative Care Initiative
www.uhfnyc.org/archive/clgrant/grpci.html
This initiative is designed to improve how New York City's hospitals care for patients near the end of life and their families. The project has gathered extensive data about hospital deaths and is now developing, implementing, and testing a variety of approaches to improve care for dying patients in five hospitals. Site includes the executive summary of The Challenge of Caring for Patients near the End of Life: Findings from the Hospital Palliative Care Initiative.

C. OTHER RELEVANT WEBSITES:

Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME)
www.acgme.org/
The ACGME is responsible for the accreditation of post-MD medical training programs within the United States. Its mission is to improve the quality of health care in the United States by ensuring and improving the quality of graduate medical education experiences for physicians in training.

The American Board of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (ABHPM)
www.abhpm.org/
The ABHPM establishes the requirements for certification and recertification, creates and administers the certifying examination, works to implement high standards for training, and contributes to setting the standards for excellence in palliative medicine.

Center to Improve Care of the Dying (CICD)
www.medicaring.org/
RAND Health in collaboration with Americans for Better Care of the Dying (ABCD) and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement sponsor this website. The MediCaring concept derives from the work of Dr. Joanne Lynn and others on a feasibility study to develop an alternative medical benefit that emphasizes comprehensive, supportive, home-based care for individuals enrolled in Medicare.

Education for Physicians on End-of-Life Care (EPEC)
www.epec.net
This project specializes in physician education and training, through its core curriculum on essential clinical competencies required to provide quality end-of-life care.

Hospice Foundation of America
www.hospicefoundation.org/
Hospice Foundation of America is the nation's largest charity whose sole mission is to promote the hospice concept of care and which is supported primarily by individual donations. Information about its annual teleconferences can be found here. For 2002, the Ninth Annual National Bereavement Teleconference will be on "Living with Grief: Loss in Later Life," moderated by Cokie Roberts, ABC News. These teleconferences are also available for purchase, dating back to 1996.

Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME)
www.lcme.org/
LCME is the nationally recognized accrediting authority for medical education programs leading to the MD degree in US and Canadian medical schools. It provides a process of quality assurance that determines whether an institution or program meets established standards for function, structure, and performance.

National Council for Hospice and Specialist Palliative Care Services
www.hospice-spc-council.org.uk/publicat.ons/text/hospital.htm
Among the publications by the London-based National Council for Hospice and Specialist Palliative Care Services is an occasional report entitled Palliative Care in the Hospital Setting. It describes key aspects of palliative care provision in the hospital setting and makes recommendations. Report is based on British examples, but has general relevance to similar hospital models elsewhere.

National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO)
www.nhpco.org/
The NHPCO is the largest nonprofit membership organization representing hospice and palliative care programs and professionals in the United States. The CAPC/NHPCO joint publication, Hospital-Hospice Partnerships in Palliative Care: Creating a Continuum of Service, on hospital-hospice partnerships is also available for download on this site and can be found under Stats/Research/Resources.