Health Leaders Media: 5 Ways to Improve Palliative Care
Although most hospitals report having a palliative care program, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) report highlighted the many ways U.S. hospitals can do better in caring for patients with advanced illness.
Obstacles persist when it comes to the correlation between the services needed by patients and families and the services they can obtain. Additional barriers included access to care, inadequate numbers of palliative care specialists, and too little palliative care knowledge among other clinicians who care for individuals with serious advanced illness. In a recent article, Health Leaders Media offered five guidelines that may help take address those barriers. They include:
- Creating a culture of understanding around advanced illness
- Investing in mid-career training for palliative care specialists
- Screening for need to find the right patients earlier
- Spreading outside of the specialty and into other areas of the hospital to show worth and provide support.
- Collect and share date with your institution
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