Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative Outcomes Congress

Thursday, April 8, 2010, 8:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Attend this outcomes congress to learn how to advance palliative care in rural communities—whether you are building the foundation for a program or planning out next steps to grow or support an existing program. This event provides a unique focus on rural health care needs and opportunities for enhancing health care delivery through palliative care services.

Join the 10 communities that participated in Stratis Health's ground breaking Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative—focusing on the specific needs of rural communities to build capacity to provide palliative care. The community teams will share their stories and lessons learned about establishing or furthering their palliative care programs.

Audience

Communities participating in the Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative, administrative and clinical leaders in rural communities interested in palliative care, policy makers, payers, and other stakeholders.

Palliative care

Palliative care is an emerging field, new to many health care providers. This approach to managing serious and advanced illness centers on relieving suffering and improving quality of life for patients and their families. With Minnesota’s aging population, especially in rural areas, and with more of the elderly having multiple chronic health conditions, palliative care will be in greater demand over the next decades. To help address this need, Stratis Health is leading the Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative, bringing together 10 rural communities to start or strengthen palliative care programs in their communities.

Beginning in fall of 2008, Stratis Health began facilitating a learning collaborative, through which the community teams designed a model or focus for their community and received education to improve skills in palliative care. Over the course of 18 months, Stratis Health hosted three learning sessions on palliative care, including models and core competencies for palliative care. Between the learning sessions, communities worked to achieve goals and receive technical support. This work is culminating with this outcomes congress.

Outcomes Congress Objectives

• Identify lessons learned and best practices to incorporate into next phases of rural palliative care program development
• Learn about state and national initiatives that may support implementation of palliative care practices
• Recognize progress made by 10 rural Minnesota communities in developing community-based services to meet local palliative care needs.

Agenda

Key Note Presentation: Taking Palliative Care to the Next Level

This presentation is intended to help health care organizations think through how to further develop their palliative program and motivate them to take palliative care to the next level in their communities. Dr. Weissman will analyze the interface between the Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative and national palliative care activities. He will share three methods for increasing engagement between palliative care activities and community physicians. Learn the methods for overcoming resistance to your local palliative care initiatives.

Presenter
David Weissman, MD, is a professor emeritus, and founder of the Medical College of Wisconsin Palliative Care Center. He is board certified in Medical Oncology, Hospice, and Palliative Medicine. In 1991, he began one of the first academic palliative care programs in the United States. In 2003, the Medical College of Wisconsin’s Palliative Care Program was designated as one of six United States Palliative Care Leadership Center’s by the Center to Advance Palliative Care. Dr. Weissman is director of End-of-Life Palliative Education Resource Center (EPERC) and he was the founding editor of the Journal of Palliative Medicine. Currently, he directs the Medical School Palliative Care Education Project and serves as a consultant to the Center to Advance Palliative Care and runs the consulting practice Palliative Care Education, LLC.

Community Panels

Representatives from each of the communities that participated in the Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiatives will tell their team's story about starting/strengthening palliative care in their community through a series of three community panels. They will share key learnings and accomplishments. Hear about palliative care in various settings and with different types of patients. Learn about pilot tests and implementation methods, how to engage physicians and other health care providers, barriers and how to overcome them, and lessons learned.

End-of-Life Initiatives in Minnesota

Receive an update on state initiatives impacting end-of-life care in Minnesota. Topics to include Honoring Choices Minnesota, metro-wide community approach to advanced care planning. Sue Schettle, Twin Cities Metro Medical Society, will present an overview and Sandy Schellinger, Allina Palliative Care Director, will present on Allina’s experience with Honoring Choices Minnesota. Representatives from the Minnesota Medical Society will discuss the use of the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) in Minnesota.

Details

Location

Best Western Kelly Inn, 100 4th Avenue South, Saint Cloud, MN 56301

Register by April 2

Registration includes includes break, lunch, and handouts.

• Participating communities. No charge to team members from the communities participating in the Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative. Online registration has ended.
• Other registrants: Cost is $50. Online registration has ended.

Stratis Health is leading the Minnesota Rural Palliative Care Initiative, in partnership with Fairview Health Services' Palliative Care Program. UCare has provided funding for the initiative.

For more information, contact Michelle Marso, Stratis Health, at 952-853-8543.