Hackensack, NJ - Hackensack University Medical Center is seeking proposals for When Cure Is Not the Goal: Palliative Care Across the Long-Term Care Continuum--Questions, Controversies, Practicalities and Possibilities. Funded by The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc., the project will award grants ranging from $10,000 to $125,000 to not-for-profit groups in New York City. Funded projects will aim to foster better palliative care and end-of-life services for individuals requiring long-term care in an array of settings. The effort will be aimed at designing and implementing model programs, applying scientifically sound interventions and educational agenda, and studying relevant policy and administrative issues. An RFP is due out in November 1999 with awards to be made during Summer 2000. For more information or to obtain an RFP, contact program coordinator Barbara Vaitovas at 201.883.0667 or e-mail bvaitovas@compuserve.com.
Washington, DC - A coalition of patient advocacy groups received a landmark ruling from the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) applying the federal Patient Self-Determination Act to the California Pain Patients Bill of Rights. The ruling means that patients in California must be informed of their right to adequate pain treatment. According to the Compassion in Dying Federation, enforcing the ruling "will give patients the information they need to demand better pain treatment and highlight problems in existing federal and state laws that discourage doctors from aggressive pain management." Kathryn Tucker, legal affairs director for Compassion in Dying, wrote the original letter, which ABCD and other groups signed. HCFA Administrator Nancy-Ann Min DeParle wrote in HCFA’s reply, "Because the term ‘medical care’ encompasses the provision of pain treatment, it follows that patients must be informed of any rights they have under state law to make decisions concerning pain treatment."
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