Palliative Care and Covid 19

Palliative care is still a relatively new field in medicine, but it has proven to be a very important one that provides care to patients to reduce suffering and improve their quality of life. Unfortunately, surveys show that about 70% of the public does not know about palliative care. However, when informed about it, over 90% said they would likely consider it for a loved one or themselves when having a serious illness. Many health professionals also do not fully appreciate the value of palliative care, when it should be provided, how to identify patients who might benefit from it, barriers to its provision, and how it differs from hospice. These topics will be discussed as will the use of telemedicine for the delivery of palliative care in the hospital setting.

Presenter:

The webinar will be presented by Dana Lustbader, MD. Dr. Lustbader is chair of the Department of Palliative Care at ProHEALTH, a large multispecialty ACO serving over 1.2 million patients in the New York metropolitan area. She is the founder of Optum Supportive Care, an advanced illness program providing care to people with serious illness utilizing in-home visits and telemedicine. She partners with health plans through innovative payment models to increase access to palliative care services for people facing serious illness. Dr. Lustbader is currently working with NCQA to develop national quality standards for community palliative care programs. In addition, she helped draft the Alternative Payment Model (APM), proposed to CMS for innovative payment models for home palliative care.

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End of Life Choices New York will offer 1.0 live contact hours for NYS licensed social workers (LMSWs and LCSWs). The contact hours will be offered for a small fee of $15.00. 

Through lecture and discussion, participants will increase their knowledge around palliative care and be better prepared help their clients to receive more effective end of life care.

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe a use case for telemedicine in the delivery of palliative care in the hospital setting.

2. Discuss a strategy to identify patients who could benefit from palliative care services.

3. Identify three barriers to providing palliative care to those who need it.

End of Life Choices New York, Inc. is recognized by the New York State Education Department’s State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0464.