From the Desk

of the Executive Director

 

 

Strategic Planning and Board of Directors Meetings – Key Biscayne

 

On July 28 & 29, the Florida Hospices and Palliative Care (FHPC) Board of Directors met in Key Biscayne for our annual Strategic Planning and Board of Directors meetings.  Participation was exceptional, with 29 board delegates and alternates present.

 

 

 

“After a long day of strategic planning, the FHPC Board of Directors gathered on the lawn at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.”

 

 

Since the bulk of the strategic planning document (2005-2010 Strategic Plan) was completed in 2005, we came together this year to benchmark the progress and make adjustments to the plan.  The consensus of the board is that FHPC is heading in the right direction, and only slight adjustments were made.

 

The bulk of our first day – the planning day, was utilized work-shopping with consultants, discussing the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s (NHPCO) “Commitment to Quality”, and examining the success and future endeavors of FHPC’s first statewide Diversity Summit. 

 

Among the consultants participating, Cindy Anderson, President of Bridges Consulting (www.bridges-consulting.com), presented the findings of an April 2006 study titled, “FHPC Access Initiative: A Statewide Public Education Campaign.”  Anderson’s findings were based on interviews with 26 Florida hospice CEOs (representing 67% of FHPC membership and 60 of Florida’s 67 Counties).  These interviews ranged from 30 minutes to one hour in length, and provided some real insight into what we need to do in a statewide outreach campaign to be successful and how to meet the expectations of our members.

 

We heard from Jack Levine, Founder and President of 4Generations Institute (http://www.4GenerationsInstitute.org), regarding a long term communications plan for FHPC and a variety of tools and resources that can be produced for the benefit of our members and the public.  Implementation of the plan will involve a “ramping up” process, and will ultimately aid and facilitate a more effective use of resources in communicating hospice and end-of-life issues to all of our audiences.

 

Susan Ponder-Stansel, President/CEO of Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, and Chair of the FHPC Access Initiative -- Diversity Subcommittee, presented a report created by MountainTop Institute (http://www.mountaintopinstitute.org/).  The report was created as a follow-up to the FHPC Access Initiative Diversity Summit held in Orlando, May 8-10, this year.  The energy and synergy arising from the Diversity Summit is exciting to witness, and the work of this group was affirmed by the board.  Bryant Rollins, President and CEO, and Shirley B. Stetson, Vice President of Organizational Development of MountainTop Institute, facilitated the Diversity Summit of 93 hospice leaders and staff.  Those that attended were led through exercises designed to:

 

  1. For the statewide hospice community to understand, acknowledge and identify barriers to access for the racially and ethnically diverse people and communities across Florida

 

  1. To develop state and local strategies to develop more access among racially and ethnically diverse communities and peoples that will increase their participation in hospice and palliative care services. To create a plan of action

 

  1. To create a culture of inclusion, awareness and cultural competence within the hospice community statewide.

 

 

The FHPC Board of Directors adopted the NHPCO “State Hospice Organization Commitment to Quality.”  The pledge states that FHPC “will encourage and support care and services that are safe, patient-centered, effective, efficient, timely, and equitable and consistent with the six aims as described by the Institute of Medicine” (Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health Care System for the 21st Century – 2001).  (http://www.floridahospices.org/pledge.pdf)

 

 

 

Patron Associate Member Invitational Dinner

 

 

“Representing the founding Patron Associate Members in presenting a check to Susan Telli (right), President/CEO of Hospice of Southeast Florida, and chair of this Patron Invitational Dinner, are Lee Bell (left), Shareholder of SaltMarsh, Cleaveland & Gund, and Cheryl Godbout (center), Community Development Director of Dignity Memorial.”

 

On July 27, as an opening event for our activities in Key Biscayne, we held an invitational event to ask companies and individuals to join FHPC as Patron Associate Members.  The event was well-attended and achieved six new Patron Associate Members, as well as the presentation of a check for $15,000 by our six “founding” Patron Associate Members.  The founding Patron Associate Members are Dignity Memorial, Saltmarsh, Cleaveland & Gund, Certified Public Accountants and Consultants, Hospice Pharmacia, a division of excelleRx, Inc., Pulte Homes, Bouchard Insurance, and The Corridor Group, Inc. 

 

Patron Associate Membership is $2,500 annually, and has its benefits.  Contact Sally Weatherford at 850.878.2632 for details if you are interested in Patron Associate Membership or in an Associate Membership.

 

 

New State Office Location

 

By now, you have probably heard that FHPC has a new state office location.  As of June 1, 2006, the FHPC state office moved to 2000 Apalachee Parkway, in Tallahassee – on the second floor of the Farmers and Merchants Bank (FMB) building. This office is lovely and provides us with adequate office space for our current needs. It includes a training center that can accommodate meetings and can seat up to 24 people (classroom-style). We’ve already had members of the community utilize the training center. With our new lighted signs on both Blairstone Road and the Apalachee Parkway, over 65,000 cars per day are exposed to our name and website address. The next time you come to Tallahassee, please come visit us.

 

 

Website Traffic is Increasing Dramatically

 

During the past 12 months, the FHPC Home Page has received about 20,000 “hits,” the “Find a Hospice” feature has had about 16,000 hits, and the “Careers in Hospice” feature has had about 7,500 hits. Over the past three months, the website has averaged over 3,700 hits per month (220% increase over the 12-month pace), and 2,000 hits per month on the “Find a Hospice” feature (320% increase over the 12-month pace). 

 

 

Electronic Newsletters

 

We currently have 650 subscribers to “The Hospice e-News” (weekly) and “The Hospice Insider” (monthly) our electronic newsletters. Sign-up for these e-newsletters is through an automated process.  Electronic publication and communication are very cost effective for our organization.  By utilizing these tools we are able to keep the information fresh and timely because lead time in dispensing news is cut to minutes or hours, rather than weeks or months required in quality print jobs.  Printed publications like The Hospice e-News and The Hospice Insider -- if sent to all our subscribers, would cost well over $100,000 annually.  Electronic publications not only save FHPC thousands of dollars, but allow us to communicate with just about everyone who wants to be in touch with hospice and end-of-life issues.