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Delaware Hospice joins Center to Advance Palliative Care

October 14, 2018

Delaware Hospice recently announced its membership with the Center to Advance Palliative Care. This membership will help facilitate the ongoing initiative for ensuring the highest quality of care for its patients. Staff will receive access to a wide range of resources that will continue to improve the quality of care for patients with serious illness.

Palliative care is one of the fastest-growing healthcare fields in the country. In the past 16 years, hospital palliative care programs have tripled. However, in-home palliative care is still relatively underutilized.

Delaware Palliative, a program of Delaware Hospice, is one of the only in-home based palliative care programs offered in Delaware. In the past, three years, Delaware Palliative has seen a 27 percent increase in the number of patients served.

“Healthcare providers and patients are starting to understand and witness the benefits of an in-home palliative care program,” said Loretta Higgins, MSN, CRNP, Delaware Palliative lead nurse practitioner. “Our staff is able to meet the patient and family in their home environment to develop a collaborative and patient-specific plan of care. We become the liaison between the patient and the community providers in managing symptoms in the home, in an effort to prevent serious exacerbation and prevent an emergency department visit or acute hospital inpatient stay. I am very excited for our staff to have access to a resource like CAPC.”

Online clinical training through CAPC is designed to enhance care of patients with serious illness by providing concrete training in the following competencies: managing pain; managing symptoms including nausea and vomiting, dyspnea, constipation, anxiety and depression; communicating effectively with patients and caregivers; relieving suffering; preventing crises through whole-patient care; managing gaps in care; and improving patient and system outcomes.

For more information, call 800-838-9800 or go to www.delawarehospice.org.

 

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