From the Desk
of the Executive Director
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hospice Care in the Future
When
one attends a national meeting such as the recent National Hospice and
Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) “Council of States” & “Public Policy
Forum” in
“Hospice Care Must Change”
At
one of the NHPCO committee meetings I attended, a participant shared some
tidbits from research that they had conducted.
In this case, it dealt with a change in the American consumer, beginning
with my generation – the “Baby Boomers,” in the context of, “What will hospice look like in the future?” The research indicated that the delivery of
hospice care MUST change as the Baby Boomers begin consuming end-of-life
services. Upon hearing that proclamation,
I like most in the room were asking, “Really...
it MUST change… why?” In short,
because the Baby Boomers are much more “demanding”
consumers of goods and services. It was
said that they will not “tolerate”
the process of being handed off from one health care service provider to
another as they transition through the various phases of health care treatment
and services. From routine health
maintenance and disease prevention, diagnosis, curative treatment, end-of-life
care, to family bereavement, the Baby Boomers are going to expect and demand a
seamless system in which they see the same health care practitioners, deal with
the same billing agents, and so on. With
just a little bit of analysis, you realize that it’s not necessarily the nature
of hospice care that change will be demanded of, rather it’s the healthcare
system(s) in which hospices operate that these consumer demands are going to
seek to change. If the hypothesis is
correct -- that the Baby Boomers and subsequent generations will demand a seamless
system, then the key will be how hospices manage some sort of integration into
a healthcare delivery system without losing identity and the qualities that we
have come to know as hospice, or how hospices can or will manage to carve
themselves out of this scenario.
OK
– keep in mind that the aforementioned tidbit is just one organization’s take
on some research. It is not cast in
stone, and it does not take into account that consumer demands and expectations
are somewhat malleable and therefore can be shaped, changed, managed,
manipulated, etc. But it does tell us
that we had better be diligent in horizon scanning and plotting a course for
the future, or we could be figuratively, left by the side of the road.
NHPCO Horizon Scanning
Most
of the committees within NHPCO are currently going through horizon scanning
exercises. Don Schumacher, President of
NHPCO, asked each of the committees and subcommittees to come up with the best,
medium, and worse case scenarios in their areas for what hospice and palliative
care would look like in 2020. This has
come to be known as, “The Schumacher Charge.”
As Chair of the NHPCO State Issues Subcommittee, we conducted the
exercise (from a state issues perspective).
As a member of the NHPCO Public Policy Steering Committee, we conducted
the exercise. As I mentioned before, it
was very enlightening.
I
would like to ask you to join in that exercise.
Put on your creative hats and come up with some bullet points of what
the best, medium, and worse case scenarios would look life for hospice and
palliative care in the year 2020. Take
it from your perspective and let me know what that perspective is. Put it in an email and send it to me. We’ll compile it and post it for you to look
at, (and possibly be somewhat enlightened).
I’ll share it with Dr. Schumacher, too.
I
look forward to hearing from you. Thank
you for all that you do.
Paul
A. Ledford
Executive
Director