The Development and Outcomes of a Statewide Network of Hospital-Based Palliative Care Teams

Abstract

Health care systems need to be developed that meet the palliative care needs of patients and their families. The West Virginia Initiative to Improve End-of-Life Care charged its Palliative Care Delivery System Task Force with developing hospital-based palliative care teams in West Virginia. A descriptive study of a state-community partnership to improve palliative care. Numbers of member hospitals, number and nature of palliative care consultations, number of patients referred to hospice programs. What began as a palliative care network of five hospitals has grown into a network of 16. Network members advise one another on financing, staffing, and obtaining administrative buy-in, and the network leaders provide educational programs to prepare physicians and nurses to serve as consultants on hospital-based palliative care teams. There was a 300% increase in the number of palliative care consultations between 2000 and 2003 in 49 of West Virginia's 55 counties. Analysis of the submitted data collections forms has allowed the network to promote improvement in palliative care consultations in member hospitals and to initiate interventions on a statewide basis to improve decision-making with the appropriate legal agent, treatment of pain, and referral of patients for hospice care. Hospital participation in the Palliative Care Delivery System Task Force led to a sustained membership organization, the West Virginia Palliative Care Network that promotes hospital-based palliative care.