Cincinnati Aims to Improve End-of-Life Care
23 Sep 2014
The Cincinnati Alliance was recently recognized for its work on end-of-life wishes in the Journal-News. Cincinnati’s Advance Care Planning Coalition is a team of both hospital and non-acute providers working together to better identify patients’ end-of-life care wishes and transmit that information from one care setting to the next.
Through the coalition, a social worker and clinical nurse specialist from the hospital will undergo training—facilitated by Hospice of Cincinnati—on how to become comfortable talking to patients who are ill about advance care plans.
The type of patients who will be identified during the coalition’s initial work include frail elders who have had multiple hospitalizations, have multiple chronic conditions, are taking multiple medications, or have a high rate of visiting specialists.
“For many patients facing end of life, especially frail, elderly individuals, talking about goals and wishes for treatment can be very difficult,” said Sheri Vogel, director of quality and continuum of care integration at Greater Cincinnati Health Council.
The Advance Care Planning Coalition will work to achieve the following results by May 2015:
- Seventy-five percent of elders in the coalition population will have a documented advance care plan on their record.
- At least 75 percent of coalition patients will have a successful transfer of their advance care plan to the next care setting.
- The advance care plan will be incorporated into at least 90 percent of clinical orders.