Palliative care is one of the fastest growing areas in health care, with three times as many hospitals providing palliative services today as did just 15 years ago. Offering personalized, coordinated treatment to address the pain, symptoms and stress associated with serious illness, palliative care has been shown to reduce emergency department use and hospital re-admissions while improving quality of life and extending survival times. However, access to these services remains inconsistent across hospitals and even more limited in other care settings.

This webinar will explore ways to improve access to palliative care, including the following:

• the key benefits of team-based care with both curative and comfort goals, and the obstacles posed by fee-for-service
• a scalable model for outpatient palliative care that, in early evaluation, has reduced hospitalizations by 50 to 70 percent
• a new Medicare pilot that allows patients to access palliative care through hospice while pursuing life-prolonging treatment
• strategies for moving palliative care into a wider variety of settings, such as nursing homes and community-based clinics
• a training program that’s helping hospitals build proficiency in evidence-based palliative care practices