PRESS
RELEASE
For
Immediate Release
Contact:
Ken Zuroski
Phone: 412.787.1002
Email: kenz@hpna.org
Pittsburgh
,
PA
, April 1, 2008
-- The National Consensus Project for Quality
Palliative Care (NCP) announced today the inauguration
of the NCP Quality in Palliative Care Award, a program
designed to recognize organizations performing superior
work incorporating the NCP’s Clinical
Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care
(http://www.nationalconsensusproject.org) into their
palliative care services.
“While
many organizations in the
United States
have used the NCP’s Guidelines
and the National Quality Forum’s Preferred
Practices to improve the care they provide, others
have yet to do so,” said Betty
Ferrell, RN, PhD, FAAN, Chair of the NCP. “The NCP
award is timely given other initiatives recently
introduced, including the Joint Commission’s
Certification for Palliative Care Programs, which
recognizes palliative care programs that make
exceptional efforts to improve delivery of care.”
Organizations
competing for the NCP Quality in Palliative Care Award
will submit nomination packets documenting how they have
used the Guidelines and
Preferred Practices to enhance their
services, with particular emphasis on the ways they have
applied these palliative care guidelines across diverse
practices and settings. Award nominations are accepted
until September, allowing time for organizations to
build on their present use of the Guidelines.
Award
submissions will be reviewed by committee, with four to
eight organizations ultimately chosen as exemplifying
superior implementations of the Guidelines and Preferred
Practices. Each winning organization will receive a
$2,500 grant to continue its work along with a
commemorative plaque, and will be featured at national
meetings and in professional publications. Information
about winning organizations will be broadcast by the
four organizations represented by the NCP:the
American
Academy
of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, the Center to
Advance Palliative Care, the Hospice and Palliative
Nurses Association, and the National Hospice and
Palliative Care Organization.
“The
recent growth in number of hospital palliative care
programs in the U.S. has been stunning--more than
seventy percent of hospitals with more than two hundred
beds reported having a program in 2006,” said Diane
E. Meier, MD, Director of the Center to Advance
Palliative Care. “The next step is to ensure that
these programs are delivering care of standardized and
measurably high quality. This award will recognize the
nation’s leaders who are delivering exemplary
palliative care by meeting the quality guidelines
established by the NCP.”
“Many
hospices across the country are implementing the Guidelines
to improve the quality and breadth of their services,”
said Don Schumacher, PsyD, President and CEO of the National Hospice and
Palliative Care Organization. “The NCP Quality in
Palliative Care Award is an excellent means for hospices
to be recognized by the greater palliative care
community.”
Details
of the awards program, including instructions on how to
apply, can be found on the NCP’s web site at http://www.nationalconsensusproject.org,
or by calling Ken Zuroski, Project Coordinator, at 412
787 1002. Applications are due by September 1, 2008.
Awards will be announced on October 1, 2008. Funding for
this initiative is provided by The Mayday Fund.
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