New Issue Focuses on

Integrated End-of-Life Care

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces the October 24 issue of the Health Care Innovations Exchange (http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov).

The featured Innovations describe two programs that used palliative care to help elderly and terminally ill patients make greater use of hospice and home care services. A third program coordinated care for Medicare patients and their families, allowing them to define their wishes and options for end-of-life care, increase their use of hospice services, and reduce the incidence of inpatient stays.
The featured QualityTools provide educational, clinical, and organizational resources and information to help ensure better care for patients and their families as they face end-of-life issues.
Read more innovation profiles related to end-of-life care (http://go.usa.gov/YmbG) on the Innovations Exchange Web site, which contains more than 725 searchable innovations and 1,500 QualityTools.

Spotlight:

New PerspectiveEffective Palliative Care Programs Require Health System Change: A Conversation with Diane Meier, MD, FACP, Director, Center to Advance Palliative Care and Professor, Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; and Joanne Lynn, MD, MA, MS, Director, Center for Elder Care and Advanced Illness, Altarum Institute. (http://go.usa.gov/YybV)

Events and Podcasts:

New Podcast Features Innovator
A new AHRQ Healthcare 411 podcast (http://go.usa.gov/Ymbz) highlights the Lakeland Regional Medical Center’s annual "drive-through" vaccine program for seniors and features innovator Mary Jane Seymour. To read the related innovation profile, go to http://go.usa.gov/YmjW.

View the latest issue and search for Innovations and QualityTools on your smart phone at http://m.innovations.ahrq.gov.

New issues of the Innovations Exchange are published biweekly on Wednesdays. Please contact us at info@innovations.ahrq.gov with any questions or comments.

Follow the Innovations Exchange (AHRQIX) on Twitter with this hyperlink: http://www.twitter.com/ahrqix.