Anne Baye Ericksen
Discomfort. Pain. Stress. Lethargy. So much comes with serious illness beyond diagnoses, tests, medications, and potentially taxing treatment protocols. There’s also pain management, patient education, and complex emotional swings. Palliative care specialists strive to provide patients holistic relief from their symptoms, pain, and stress associated with serious illnesses. Although akin to hospice, palliative patients aren’t necessarily dealing with life-threatening diseases, but intense medical situations nonetheless. And it’s that distinction that makes it a high-demand specialty. Unfortunately, resources nationwide continue to fall short.
The Center to Advance Palliative Care issued the America’s Care of Serious Illness: A State-by-State Report Card on Access to Palliative Care in Our Nation’s Hospitals, which judges how well—or not—facilities meet communities’ palliative needs. While the 2011 grades show marked improvement over the previous report card released in 2008, they also reveal notable disparities.
The Good News
More than half of the states earned a B mark. Even better, seven states and the District of Columbia made top grades, meaning more than 80 percent of their hospitals offer palliative services. Only 12 percent of states received failing grades.
Geographical Influences
For whatever reason, the South appears to be the most lackluster in palliative offerings. For example, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama sport the dubious honor of posting the lowest rates of palliative care among small hospitals while more than half of reporting small hospitals in Maine and New Hampshire sponsor formal palliative programs.
Bigger is Better
The report card also shows that larger hospitals are more likely to staff palliative specialists. Eighty-five percent of medical centers with a minimum of 300 beds employed palliative care teams opposed to less than one-quarter of small hospitals nationwide. What’s more, communities hosting only one hospital were highly unlikely to have palliative specialists on staff.
In an environment where the national healthcare community is already bracing for the projected onslaught of greater demand created by both the aging American population and newly insured individuals, the calls for palliative skills will probably react in kind. In other words, healthcare professionals trained in these services should experience a surge in career opportunities. And if you’re interested in pursuing mobile contracts in palliative care, it’s best to know how contracting facilities view and embrace this healthcare specialty.
See how the states rate at capc.org/reportcard. For more information on the palliative specialty, check out the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association at hpna.org.
Anne Baye Ericksen is a freelance writer based in Simi Valley, Calif.
