UHF to form end-of-life network
The United Hospital Fund (UHF) in New York City has secured $2.1 million in grant money to create a network of palliative care units among hospitals, hospices, and other providers in the nation’s largest city. Its creators are hoping the partnership will address the lack of coordination and gaps in crucial services for terminally ill patients, their families, and caregivers.
"Advances in acute care enable us to extend life for many patients with chronic, progressive illnesses," says UHF president James R. Tallon, Jr. "We also need to extend the reach of palliative care — pain management, patient comfort, and psychological, spiritual, and social service counseling — from the last weeks to the last months and sometimes even years of life."
An achievable goal'
The plan calls for hospitals, hospices, long-term care agencies, home care agencies, and a variety of community organizations to forge relationships that will address the medical, social service, spiritual, and psychological needs of patients with chronic, progressive, life-threatening illnesses. The networks also will support and assist families and caregivers throughout the end-of-life process.
"The problem is not lack of knowledge, but the absence of coherent and accessible palliative care delivery systems rooted in the community, that allow us to use this knowledge effectively. Comprehensive and timely care throughout the dying process is a humane and achievable goal," Tallon says.
Creators of the New York City network believe it will serve as a national model for providing a continuum of coordinated, compassionate care in a timely and comprehensive manner. The model will target progressive illnesses including cancer, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema), Alzheimer’s disease, and AIDS.
"Our grantees will be developing a variety of ways to respond early, humanely, and effectively to life’s ultimate crisis. Through these grants and the different approaches they take involving a spectrum of caring organizations and community resources, we hope to develop models that work here and across the nation," says David A. Gould, senior vice president for program at UHF.
UHF is a health services research and philanthropic organization addressing critical issues affecting hospitals and health care in New York City and the nation. The grants are part of the Fund’s Community-Oriented Palliative Care Initiative, an outgrowth of its earlier Hospital Palliative Care Initiative, which supported the development of palliative care clinical programs in five New York City hospitals.
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