American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Leader Touts Quality, Cost Benefits of Palliative Care for Healthcare Reform
Posted on: Monday, 15 June 2009, 11:30 CDT
Morrison, director of the National Palliative Care Research Center, said policymakers should ensure that efforts to reform the health care system address current disparities in access to palliative care and the scarcity of funding to support needed research that could provide the evidence base to guide clinical care and care delivery. Public and professional education are also lacking, he said.
Palliative care is the interdisciplinary specialty that focuses on improving quality of life for patients with advanced illness and for their families through relieving pain and other distressing symptoms, care coordination and informed decision making. Palliative care is provided alongside all other appropriate disease-directed treatments.
At the briefing hosted by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the Catholic Health Association of
"In addition to improved clinical care and patient and family satisfaction, hospital palliative care programs deliver significant cost savings," stated Morrison, a professor of geriatrics and medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in
Until a decade ago, palliative care in
The AAHPM has developed a detailed outline of recommendations for health care reform that suggests several targeted steps to strengthen workforce, research and care delivery, including for the growing population of Medicare beneficiaries. The group represents more than 3,600 physicians and providers caring for patients with life-threatening or serious conditions and their families. Hospice and palliative medicine is a newly recognized medical subspecialty that focuses on relieving pain and suffering, improving communication with patients and families and informed decision-making regardless of prognosis or eligibility for hospice care.
Briefing Time and Location:
Editor's Note: AAHPM's recommendations for health care reform are available by contacting
Contact:
SOURCE American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Source: PR Newswire
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