Sean Morrison set a fantastic vision for the ultimate goal for Palliative Care (PC) in the future:
All patients will know what PC is and when to ask for it
All providers will have the knowledge and skills to administer basic PC
There will be the necessary infrastructure to deliver HIGH QUALITY PC.
But as they say, you can’t get there from here.
Both Sean and Diane Meier in her policy talk outline a vision for policy change.
Look for the AAHPM website to have a posting of the updated policy goals soon.
We must address:
1. work force (both getting the docs for now, the docs for the future, and the faculty to train them)
2. access and quality
3. increasing the evidence base
4. correcting public misperceptions
The academy’s policy committee meeting adds access to opioid analgesics, which they word broadly to include timely access to prescription medicines.
(Look for more on the REMS later, but now I need to go get some REM sleep)
To Sean’s AM talk: Policy changes 1, 2, and 3 must be to fix the GME cap. Fellowships currently depend on philanthropy as Medicare dollars don’t flow to the fellows as they do in other areas. This is not sustainable long term.
Paul Tatum