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

An Initiative of Franciscan Health System West

Franciscan Health System West's Improving Care Through the End of Life is a primary care clinic-based program in Gig Harbor, Washington. In this program, primary care physicians identify patients with serious and progressive illnesses, talk to them about expectations for the future, and then link them to a nurse care coordinator, who works with these patients and their families to help them access community services. The nurse care coordinator helps to ensure continuity of care by trouble-shooting various obstacles the patients and families may experience. Improving Care is a recent winner of the American Hospital Association's Circle of Life Award for innovative practice in end-of-life care. In the following interviews, Mimi Pattison, MD, medical director for Palliative Care Services and Improving Care Through the End of Life for Franciscan Health System West, and Georganne Trandum, RN, OCN, director of Improving Care Through the End of Life, describe the genesis and development of this program, as well as continuing barriers to providing exemplary end-of-life care for patients seen in a clinic setting.

• Interview with Mimi Pattison, MD

• Interview with Georganne Trandum, RN, OCN