Palliative care is well established in U.S hospitals, with seventy-five percent of those with fifty beds or more reporting a palliative care program. Recognizing the needs of seriously ill patients and their families in all care settings, many palliative care programs are working to extend services in their communities – either by expanding existing hospital programs to other settings, or building new programs in non-hospital settings. These programs provide palliative care in patient’s homes, nursing homes, doctor’s offices, and outpatient clinics, and are vital in reaching a patient population that would otherwise not be served through traditional hospital palliative care. However, little is known about the locations or extent of this community reach, or how these community palliative care services are staffed and structured to meet patient and family need.
To fill this gap, the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC), in collaboration with the National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care (NCHPC), launched Mapping Community Palliative Care. The goal of this initiative is to develop a comprehensive inventory of community palliative care programs and estimate their prevalence nationwide.
The three-year project, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, will catalog palliative care programs in the community and analyze palliative care access across settings. By completing a short eight-question survey, community palliative care programs nationwide can put their program “on the map,” identifying themselves, where their services are provided, and what services they offer. Mapping Community Palliative Care is committed to increasing access to palliative care services for patients, families, caregivers, and providers. Programs participating in Mapping Community Palliative Care will have the option to be listed in the Provider Directory on GetPalliativeCare.org, the leading online resource for palliative care information for people with serious illness and their families. Anyone looking for palliative care resources will be able to search the directory by location and service type (hospital, home, nursing home, and office/clinic). As more and more programs add their profiles to the directory, patients and families will be able to find local resources and programs to meet their specific needs.
Mapping participants are also invited to participate in the National Palliative Care Registry™ - by providing annual aggregate data on program structure and operations, participants receive reports comparing their palliative care programs to their peers. Mapping Community Palliative Care and the National Palliative Care Registry™ are both free and open to programs across all care settings.
Mapping Community Palliative Care is working to bring the field of palliative care one step closer to a comprehensive national profile of palliative care services across care settings.
To participate, please visit mapping.capc.org and “make your mark” today!
If you are interested in learning more about Mapping Community Palliative Care, please contact Rachael Heitner, MA, CHPCA, Research Associate at CAPC, at mapping@capc.org.
