Creating System Change

• CHI's System Wide Palliative Care Initiative

Catholic Health Initiatives, the second largest Catholic health system in the United States, set out to develop a system wide palliative care program. Based in Denver, Colorado, CHI includes 70 hospitals; 43 long-term care, assisted and independent living and residential facilities; and two community-based health organizations located in 19 states.

Catholic Health Initiatives has a longstanding commitment to improving care at life’s end. This commitment has become a system wide effort through the establishment of a multi-functional committee on end-of-life care. The organizational effort has included a broad assessment of the current status of end-of-life care; the provision of educational and training opportunities; a focus on cultural sensitivity in the provision of services; engagement of local communities to strengthen the comprehensive delivery of services; and advocacy activism to improve legislation, regulation and financing of end-of-life care.

Click here to see a presentation describing CHI's palliative care initiative.

• Building a System-Wide Foundation for Palliative Care - Bon Secours Journey

"To provide integrative comprehensive holistic palliative care services across the continuum," Bon Secours Health System Statement on Quality, 2004.

Click here to see a presentation describing the Bon Secours Journey.

• National Consensus Project
This project document offers clinical practice guidelines for quality patient care.
http://wwwnationalconsensusproject.org/Guideline.pdf