End-of-life innovations to be honored
Annual award offers $25,000 prize
Innovative programs — from hospitals, hospices, long-term care facilities, or at a patient’s home — will be honored with a $25,000 award beginning next year.
The announcement for the new award, initiated by the Chicago-based American Hospital Association (AHA), was met with congratulatory remarks by former First Lady Rosalynn Carter at the AHA’s annual membership meeting. The award is co-sponsored by the Chicago-based American Medical Association, the Arlington, VA-based National Hospice Organization, and the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging in Washington, DC.
"It seems so many people in their last days of their lives die alone in the hospital. People should be able to die comfortably and without pain. I hope this award will focus attention on dying, which should be embraced as a natural event," commented Carter after the award was announced.
Carter is honorary chair of the Princeton, NJ-based Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Last Acts Campaign, which is a coalition of more than 295 organizations aimed at improving the quality of care for dying patients in the United States. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation will fund the annual award, which will be presented to up to three exemplary programs.
Called the Circle of Life: Celebrating Innovation in End-of-Life Care, the award will be given to programs that are linked to direct patient care by providers, and all applicants will be encouraged to provide letters from other local community organizations and providers indicating communitywide approaches to delivering service. A selection committee, which has yet to be chosen, will consist of physicians, chaplains, and other caregivers familiar with end-of-life issues.
The selection committee will examine features such as whether the program:
• respects patient goals and preferences;
• provides comprehensive care;
• acknowledges and addresses the family or caregivers’ concerns and needs;
• builds systems and mechanisms of support to continue the program for future patients and caregivers.
"Innovative programs must start being highlighted because there is so little recognition of efforts to provide excellent care for the dying," says Christine Cassel, MD, a palliative care specialist at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Cassel also chaired the committee of end-of-life experts that developed the award structure and criteria.
"We need to face the reality that health professionals do not spend enough time easing death for the hopelessly ill because many of their institutions place too low a priority on these services," adds Cassel.
The application process begins this month. Information about the award and application instructions are available on the AHA Web site (www.aha.org), that also will provide links to the co-sponsoring organization Web sites.
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