DESCRIPTION:
Despite the growth of patients
and their families using hospice care, the average length of stay has
been declining. The number of Medicare beneficiaries who receive less
than a week of hospice care has been rising sharply.
At the same time, you are
beginning to see an increasing emphasis on improving end-of-life care.
Physicians are the critical piece of the solution to the concerns of
hospice professionals.
From their first day of medical
school, physicians are trained to cure and prolong life and focus on
combating disease. Problem is the majority of physicians are not
referring their terminally ill patients soon enough to hospice to offer
patients the care and quality of life that hospice services provides.
Now, "How Stronger
Hospice-Physician Education Programs Can Improve End-of-Life Care, ALOS
and Your Bottom Line" has been produced by the editorial staff of hospice
letter, the nation's first and leading management briefing
for hospice executives since 1979.
This practical report gives you:
- Strategies for developing
effective, ongoing programs to strengthen referral programs and ALOS
- Proven tips and methods for
education and referral programs that are working elsewhere
- Suggestions on building
relationships with physicians and other referral sources in your
community
End-of-life education for
physicians is a vital component for alleviating stress, confusion and
guilt by families faced with difficult decisions.
Because reimbursement hinges on
timely patient referrals hospices are struggling with less and less
reimbursement and shorter lengths of stay.
MAKING A
DIFFERENCE WITH PHYSICIAN EDUCATION
Discover why more hospices are
devoting time, money and resources to physician education programs. How
unduly 'optimistic" prognoses - with consequent late referral to
hospice - have adverse implications for terminally ill patients.
This new special report looks at
the problem of how short lengths of stay hurt patients and their
families due to struggling without hospice support services.
Coming to terms with dying,
making choices about how to spend their remaining time, preparing their
family for loss, are essential benefits of hospice care that may be
denied patients because their physicians are unable or unwilling to be
honest about their patients' prognosis.
Doctors are "symptomatically
optimistic" with hospice referrals, one leading study confirmed.
MELDING HOSPICE
AND PALLIATIVE CARE
In this special report for
hospice professionals, you'll see why physician education is a major
factor in increasing average length of stay. Discover how one Florida
hospice revamped its admission criteria allowing patients to be
admitted for longer as permitted by state regulation. This hospice is
closely monitoring referrals and converts as many as possible to
admissions.
The report includes
checklist-type information like five ways physicians may improve
end-of-life care. Even nurses need more end-of-life education,
researchers found. Read about the $2.24 million grant that's supporting
end-of-life nursing education as a training project.
See how to get the two most
important outsiders in end-of-life care to work together. Get results
of a report on how encouraging physicians and clergy to communicate
with each other can go
FOCUSING ON
REFERRAL SOURCES
You'll learn the management
techniques hospices can use to increase the average length of stay.
Like what happened when one hospice hired a fill-time professional
relations coordinator whose sole job was to reach out to referral
sources.
- Discover how to forge a
relationship with a difficult physician. Like how a Michigan hospice
decided to combat the problem of declining lengths of stay by assessing
its relations with two local oncologists, and the successful results.
- Identify ways you can shift
physicians' referring patterns to include referrals of non-cancer
patients.
- Find out how a California
hospice took this approach and had an upswing in referrals.
EDUCATIONAL
PROGRAMS FOR PHYSICIANS ON END-OF-LIFE CARE
Learn how charitable foundations
and other organizations are funding and developing educational programs
for physicians on end-of-life care. Projects address such key points as
education of medical students and young physicians, the textbooks they
use, licensing exams, and residency training, all with the goal of
improving the quality of life for terminal patients.
See how a Denver hospice
increased its admissions/referrals by 30 percent and its referral base
by 140 percent through an innovative program that also resulted in a
doubling of its managed care contracts.
A North Dakota hospice
maintained its average length of stay, doubled its average daily census
and increased referrals by focusing its marketing efforts on women 40
to 60 years of age. Targeting this segment of potential referrers has
proven to be a successful method for increasing the hospice's LOS.
"How Stronger Hospice-Physician
Education Programs Can Improve End-of-Life Care, ALOS and, your Bottom
Line" can help get the strategy and planning discussion juices going
for your hospice. This special report zeros in on the problem and lays
out some bright and innovative solutions.
There is no better time than
right now to strengthen your ALOS, continue to improve your hospice's
end-of-life care goals for your patients and their families. One new
idea, one cemented relationship with a referring physician, will more
than pay for the modest price of this special report.
Order your copy today.
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