Navigating Tensions: Integrating Palliative Care Consultation Services Into an Academic Medical Center Setting

Integrating education into primary care quality and cost improvement at an academic medical center.

INTRODUCTION In 1996 the University of Michigan Health System created the Guidelines Utilization, Implementation, Development, and Evaluation Studies (GUIDES) unit to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of primary care for common medical problems. GUIDES's primary functions are to oversee the development of evidence-based, practical clinical guidelines for common medical conditions; meas...

Integrating AYUSH into Palliative Care

Marcia Angell in an editorial published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1998 stated “There cannot be two kinds of medicine — conventional and alternative. There is only medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not, medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work. Once a treatment has been tested rigorously, it no longer matters whether it was considered...

Integrating palliative care into nursing homes.

Palliative care consultation trajectories.

BACKGROUND Palliative care consultations teams (PCCTs) promote comprehensive health but only if the PCCT can influence actual care. The purpose of this study is to document the types of recommendations made by a PCCT, determine the rates at which recommendations are implemented, and identify the factors related to implementation. RESULTS The mean number of recommendations per patient was 1.44...

Characteristics of palliative care consultation services in California hospitals.

BACKGROUND Although hospital palliative care consultation services (PCCS) can improve a variety of clinical and nonclinical outcomes, little is known about how these services are structured. METHODS We surveyed all 351 acute care hospitals in California to examine the structure and characteristics of those hospitals with PCCS. RESULTS We achieved a 92% response rate. Thirty-one percent (n=1...