NewsLine - October 2010 - (Page 3)

A Message From Don Hospice and Palliative Services: Perfect Partners October 9 is World Hospice and Palliative Care Day, a time when countries around the globe host activities to recognize hospice and palliative care as a much-needed component of the health care continuum. As we celebrate 2010 World Day, let me thank each of you for the events you have planned in your communities—and extend special thanks to the 87 hospices which support our African colleagues through their participation in the FHSSA Partnership Program. This year’s World Day theme, “Sharing the Care,” focuses attention on the role of partnerships in supporting people with life-limiting illnesses, a message that I personally feel is so important given the enormous need across the globe. I also think it’s an important one to heed right here at home— especially now. We have known for some time that palliative care, like hospice, is good for patients and families—and the rest of the country is thankfully catching on. Health care reform, with its emphasis on quality cost-effective care, has helped. So has recent research that builds on some of NHPCO’s past work. • In a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that patients with non-small-cell lung cancer who received palliative care lived, on average, almost two months longer than those who received standard care. The patients also reported a higher quality of life through the final course of their illness. The researchers also found that the patients who received palliative care were more likely to elect hospice services too. • This research was cited in a recent essay on CNN.com (“Quality of Life Must Start Right Away”). The author, a physician herself, shared moving examples of her own experience with terminal patients and concluded that “Palliative care is meant to make living with a serious disease more comfortable…. Palliative care belongs in the beginning of…treatment, not just the end.” • In The New Yorker article, “Letting Go,” the author cited data from one of the concurrent care projects which Aetna conducted a few years ago. He noted that hospice enrollment jumped to 70 percent when terminally ill patients received phone calls from palliative-care nurses who offered to check in regularly and help them find services they needed, from pain control to living wills. Palliative care is clearly in the media spotlight, and I suspect will continue to be for some time. This may prompt more patients to seek palliative care sooner and, hopefully, also result in earlier referral to hospice. My goal is to have every NHPCO member expand or partner to provide palliative care as well as hospice services. J. Donald Schumacher President/CEO NewsLine 3 http://www.fhssa.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3456 http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1000678 http://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/09/08/ofri.palliative.care/#fbid=X-SM45La4QD&wom=false http://www.CNN.com http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/02/100802fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NewsLine - October 2010

Getting Paid for Hospice Physician Services
A Message from Don
Taking Your Expertise into the Business Community
National Hospice/PC Month Materials from Marketplace
Update Your Internet Browser
New Pediatric PC Training—and Video Excerpt
People and Places
NHPCO’s Upcoming Educational Offerings
NHF Quarterly Report

NewsLine - October 2010