Sourcebook : 16.2 Ways to Identify and Enroll Patients : 16.2.1 Case Study - Community Hospitals Indianapolis

Community Hospitals Indianapolis provided end-of-life training sessions to staff in the hospital's CHF Clinic. Initial training sessions involved all clinic staff - nursing, dietary, pharmacy, and administrative - and educated them on general end-of-life care. Subsequent sessions included case reviews to discuss interventions for patients near the end of life and ways to approach advance care planning with them. Community Hospitals Indianapolis made end-of-life consultations to its CHF clinic, making its hospice staff available by beeper to:

• Consult with clinic staff, patients, and families
• Visit the clinic to assist its staff
• Assist in identifying which patients were "ready" for hospice referral
• Discuss end-of-life issues with cardiologists

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This online version of the book Improving Care for the End of Life: A Sourcebook for Health Care Managers and Clinicians is provided with permission of Americans for Better Care of the Dying [ www.abcd-caring.org ] and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For further information on quality improvement in end-of-life care visit The Palliative Care Policy Center [ www.medicaring.org ].