State-by-State
Report Card shows improvement, but persistent gaps in access for the seriously
ill remain
WASHINGTON, Oct.
12, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- America's Care of
Serious Illness: 2015 State-by-State Report Card on Access to
Palliative Care in Our Nation's Hospitals, released on Capitol
Hill and in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, demonstrates
that access to palliative care remains highly variable and depends more upon
accidents of geography and hospital ownership than it does upon the needs of
patients with serious illness.
Millions
of seriously ill Americans and their families living in the south of the
United States, as well as in Alaska,Kansas, New Mexico and Wyoming,
still have inadequate access to palliative care teams.
The report was conducted by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) and National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC).
The report was conducted by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) and National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC).
Palliative
care is a new medical specialty focused on maximizing quality of life during
serious illness through relief of the pain, symptoms and stress that patients
and their families commonly experience.
It is delivered at the same time as all other appropriate treatments. Palliative care leads to better quality of care, longer life, and is appropriate at any age and any stage of a serious illness.
It is delivered at the same time as all other appropriate treatments. Palliative care leads to better quality of care, longer life, and is appropriate at any age and any stage of a serious illness.
Key
findings on the growth in access to hospital palliative care teams across the
fifty states include:
- Overall, the southern
U.S states received a grade of C (60% or fewer hospitals have palliative
care teams) as compared to As and Bs (60% or more hospitals) for all other
regions.
- States receiving a D
grade (40% or less of hospitals having palliative care) were Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas,Mississippi, New
Mexico, Oklahoma and Wyoming.
- Only 23% of
for-profit hospitals have palliative care. Not-for-profit hospitals are 7
times more likely to have a palliative care team than for-profits.
- In a sign of progress
since 2008, 17 states received a grade of A (up from 3 in the 2008 report
and 7 in the 2011 report). They are: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada,New
Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South
Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Washington andWisconsin.
- 90% hospitals with
300 beds or more have palliative care teams.
- 90% of hospitals
operated by the Catholic Church have palliative care.
- 78% of Medicare
patients died near a hospital that had a palliative care team, suggesting
that access is improving for this patient population.
- 96% of teaching
hospitals now have palliative care teams, increasing the likelihood that
the next generation of clinicians will receive training.
"It
is our hope that this report card focuses attention on lingering gaps in access
to palliative care in our nation's hospitals," said Diane E. Meier,
MD, director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care.
"Palliative care, like any core medical service such as ICU's or emergency departments, should be available in all U.S. hospitals."
"Palliative care, like any core medical service such as ICU's or emergency departments, should be available in all U.S. hospitals."
R.
Sean Morrison, MD, director of the National Palliative Care Research Center
added, "The dramatic growth in the number of hospitals with palliative
care teams is encouraging. Whereas we need to continue to assist hospitals
in C and D states, it is important to focus attention on ensuring that all
seriously ill patients actually receive it in a timely fashion, and that access
moves beyond hospitals to other sites of care."
Barriers
to palliative care access remain in three key areas: a workforce that is too
small to meet current and projected demand; an underdeveloped knowledge base to
provide the highest quality of care and a lack of payment models linked to
quality measures.
Center
to Advance Palliative Care
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) is a national organization dedicated to increasing the availability of palliative care services for people facing serious illness. www.capc.org, getpalliativecare.org,https://reportcard.capc.org.
The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) is a national organization dedicated to increasing the availability of palliative care services for people facing serious illness. www.capc.org, getpalliativecare.org,https://reportcard.capc.org.
The
National Palliative Care Research Center
The National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) is dedicated to advancing palliative care research capacity in the United States. www.npcrc.org
The National Palliative Care Research Center (NPCRC) is dedicated to advancing palliative care research capacity in the United States. www.npcrc.org
CAPC
and NPCRC are part of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai,
located in New York City.
The
report card was supported in part by grants from the American Cancer Society,
the Cambia Health Foundation and the National Institute on Aging.
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