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NCP Palliative Leadership Awards
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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