Palliative Care and Hospice: Changing Attitudes, Providing Education and Options

Conference Material (Password Required)

This webinar will address the confusion surrounding palliative care and hospice. It will provide definitions and regulatory guidelines and will also address the educational and emotional aspects of this subject. A brief history of hospice care and coverage will be provided as well as the concept of palliative care as a multidisciplinary medical specialty. An exploration of societal attitudes to disease, death, treatment, and the use of language will identify personal and public influences on decision-making and choices.

It is hoped that this opening overview will help to begin to dispel the myths, fears, misconceptions, and misunderstandings surrounding this palliative care and hospice. Expert Laura will explore the barriers to hospice care from both the patient’s and the provider’s perspectives. Introducing the concept of informed consent from the perspective of patient goals and treatment options can be eye-opening for providers. Goals of care discussions, understanding patient fears, and identifying all options can make decisions clearer and more informed for all involved.

She will provide an anecdotal overview of compelling stories focusing on the benefits of hospice and then go into our programs and pilot. A look at the staff and patient education and the road to changing attitudes will include the use of metrics to understand the current utilization of hospice and palliative services. Laura will identify ways to use these metrics to implement pilot projects and measure success. This will include a discussion of medical and administrative responses to metrics and educational initiatives. The importance of both group and one on one education will be introduced with an emphasis on “the teachable moment.” An overview of a pilot project that included interdisciplinary education and a focus on identifying patient information needs is included.

Learning Objective:

• Will understand the role of palliative medicine in the care of patients with high symptom burdens
• Will be able to verbalize Medicare hospice coverage regulations
• Will be able to identify and collect metrics to quantify the timeliness of hospice referral and to measure over time
• Will be able to identify the educational needs of both staff and patients and develop initiatives to meet those needs

Areas Covered in the Session:

• Palliative care
• Hospice
• Coverage as it applies to palliative care and hospice
• Hospice eligibility
• Barriers to hospice
• Live Q&A session

Suggested Attendees:

• Registered Nurses
• NPs
• MDs
• Social Workers
• Case Managers
• Patient Education professionals
• Patient Representatives
• Patient navigators
• Staff nurses and supervisors
• RN Case Managers
• Director of Case Management
• Directors and Vice Presidents of Nursing
• Directors of Patient Flow
• Director of Revenue Cycle
• Chief Financial Officers
• Chief Operations Officers
• Chief Medical Officer
• Hospitalists
• Director of Quality Management
• Nursing Home Directors
• Director of Home Care
• Director of Finance
• Physician Advisors
• Directors of Social Work

Presenter Biography:

Laura Ostrowsky RN, CCM MUP is the current president of the NYC chapter of CMSA and a Director on the national CMSA board. She is teaching a CCM prep course with the Case Management Institute, working with Athena Forum, and writing and consulting on case management and related topics.   Laura has published articles on Case Management in CMSA Today, Professional Case Management, Case in Point, The Patient Flow Journal and other periodicals.  She regularly presents at national conferences including CMSA, the Patient Advocate Institute, NTOCC, and others on topics ranging from case management, patient flow, and payer-provider collaboration to advocacy, collaborative practice, and case management’s role in the changing healthcare environment.

Laura is a past Director of Case Management at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (1999-2019) and the 2012 CMSA Case Manager of the Year.  Her program was been nominated by Case in Point for excellence in Utilization Management, Discharge Planning, and Transitions in Care and awarded the patient Advocate Award.  She created a patient advocacy program to assist patients in obtaining access to specialty care despite network restrictions.  The program has been featured in articles in Advance for Nursing, The Wall Street Journal, Case in Point, and Case Management Monthly.

Laura holds a master’s degree in Health Planning and Policy from Hunter College.  She has been a CMSA member since 2005 and has served on the Board of Directors of the NYC Chapter since 2011, and CMSA National for 2 years from 2016-2018.

Laura has 40 years of health care experience, including time as a staff nurse, QA Coordinator, and Director of UR and QA, followed by directorships in CM at New York Presbyterian (NYP) and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and providing educational presentations at part of the Genentech Speaker’s Bureau.  She also spent 3 years in information services at the NYP Network overseeing the selection, acquisition, and implementation of an integrated hospital information application for UR, QA, Credentialing, and Risk Management at 5 network hospitals.

Snippet From Our Previous Session