End-of-Life Ethics: A Case Study Approach

Edited by Charles A. Corr, Kenneth J. Doka, Bruce Jennings, and Amy S. Tucci
-Foreword by Richard B. Fife.

The cases in the book, all written and discussed by prominent  professionals, really show “ethics in action.” For professionals, the cases may help to validate the difficult choices that they guide families through every day in hospice and palliative care, or in a hospital or nursing home setting. The cases highlight real issues, looking at issues around communication, surrogacy, decision making when children or adolescents are involved, and treatment decisions. - Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv

End-of-Life Ethics: A Case Study Approach is the companion book for HFA’s 2012 Living with Grief® program. Using a case study approach, pre-eminent authors from the fields of ethics and hospice and palliative care examine the realities and challenges that exist at the intersection between ethical decision making and end-of-life care. 

Ethical decisions at the end of life provide a point where all the factors that influence end-of-life care, such as finances, laws, values, culture, and technology, converge. Decisions made at the end of life affect not only the way that the person dies, but also the ways that survivors face the loss. These decisions may influence staff – affecting morale and turnover consequently directly influencing patient care as well as families struggling with grief. 

The book explores the landmark cases that have influenced the course of end-of-life decision making,  as well as the newer models of thinking that are emerging as technology and end-of-life care continue to evolve. Authors draw upon cases, ranging from infancy to older adults, that examine what one author calls “the messy realities” of these situations, for patients, families, and health care professionals.

End-of-Life Ethics is written by top experts in the field, including:

• Terry Altilio 
• Timothy R. Arsenault
• Eileen R. Chichin
• Richard P. Cohen
• Nessa Coyle
• William Scott Long
• Mary Beth Morrissey
• Jim Palmer 
• Russell K. Portenoy 
• Daniel P. Sulmasy

Order your book today at https://register.hospicefoundation.org/
Simply select “End-of-Life Ethics” from the main Program selection page. Then, on the left-hand menu, select ‘Order Materials’.

Anniversary Special Issue of Journeys

Start the new year by supporting your bereaved clients with a special offer from Hospice Foundation of America:

Anniversary Special Issue of Journeys

Save 20%
use coupon code: anniv12
Offer Expires: February 10, 2012

This new, expanded special edition of Journeys provides additional support to your clients at the difficult anniversary time after a loss. The 6-page Anniversary Special Issue is packaged in quantities of 50 and 100.

Interesting and informative articles include:

• Anniversary blues



• Special days



• A year is a relative thing



• and a special excerpt from the memoir, Signs of Life by Natalie Taylor

Don't miss this opportunity to support your clients with the updated and expanded version of one of HFA's all-time best-selling resources. Use coupon code anniv12 when placing your order.

Click here to order online now!

To print an order form click here.

Five American Physicians Honored for Improving End-of-Life Care

The recipients of the third annual Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards, honoring excellence in end-of-life care, were recently announced.

The awards were made in three categories: a senior physician category for leadership in end-of-life care, a mid-career physician category for longstanding commitment to serving patients and for leadership in palliative care, and an early-career physician category for serious commitment to the field and contribution through practical research or clinical work. The recipients were drawn from a national group of nominated candidates.

Janet Bull, MD, chief medical director and principal investigator of Four Seasons, a nonprofit hospice and palliative care organization that serves the Hendersonville and Asheville regions of western North Carolina, received the senior physician award of $25,000. She has served as principal investigator of more than 30 clinical trials to establish best practices in hospice and palliative care. She has also designed an experimental course to train palliative care physicians and provides consulting programs in hospice, palliative care, and research. In addition, she has worked closely with the Palliative Care Association of Zambia to advance policy, education, and clinician training to promote palliative care throughout that country.

Michael Rabow, MD, Professor of Clinical Medicine, University of California‐San Francisco; Director, Symptom Management Service, UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Care Center, received the mid-career physician award of $25,000. He developed the service, which is one of the first outpatient palliative care services in a comprehensive cancer center in the U.S. It includes an interdisciplinary team of clinicians from medicine, oncology, surgery, nursing, social work, psychology, pharmacy, and chaplaincy.

Early-career awards of $15,000 each were given to three physicians:

• Justin N. Baker, MD, FAAP, FAAHPM, director, Division of Palliative and End-of-Life Care, an attending physician, Quality of Life Service, and director of the Hematology/Oncology Fellowship Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, for outstanding leadership and research on palliative care for children.



• Jason Morrow, MD, PhD, medical director of palliative care at University Health System in San Antonio, Tx., and an assistant professor of medicine at University of Texas Health Science Center School of Medicine, for his advocacy in expanding palliative care services and his passion for educating medical students, residents, and other physicians in clinical practices and ethics.



• Theresa A. Soriano, MD, MPH, director, Mount Sinai Visiting Doctor’s Program, Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, for her advocacy and leadership in caring for underserved patients and bringing primary and palliative care to those who are homebound.

NHPCO Releases Updates Facts & Figures on Hospice Care

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) released its annual report on hospice facts and figures showing the number of patients served remained fairly constant at 1.58 million in 2010 (1.56 million were served in 2009). They reported a drop in both median and average length of service.

• The median (50th percentile) length of service in 2010 was 19.7 days, a decrease from 21.1 days in 2009.
• The average length of service dropped to 67.4 days in 2010 from 69 days in 2009.

Download the PDF report here.

Recommendations from MedPAC for Hospice Payment Adequacy

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) met January 12th and presented its recommendations for hospice payment adequacy.

MedPAC staff reported that the number of hospice usage among Medicare decedents continues to rise and length of stay is increasing. MedPAC repeated it’s recommendations for changes to the Medicare reimbursement model, namely:

1. Payment reform recommendation:

-Increase payments per day at the beginning of the episode and reduce payments per day as the length of the episode increases.

-Provide an additional end-of-episode payment to reflect hospices’ higher level of effort at the end of life.

2. Recommendation for focused medical review of hospices with many long stay patients.

It's Not Too Late to Register for HFA's Fall Program, Beyond Kübler-Ross

Beyond Kübler-Ross: New Perspectives on Death, Dying and Grief is available now until November 10, 2012. Available only on DVD, this program explores the most current theoretical perspectives on death, dying, and grief, emphasizing areas where understandings of dying, death, and grief have been challenged and developed since the 1969 publication of Kübler-Ross' epochal work, On Death and Dying.

Register online at register.hospicefoundation.org, or learn more at http://www.hospicefoundation.org/educate.

Expert Panelists

• Kenneth J. Doka, PhD, MDiv, Professor of Gerontology at the Graduate School of the College of New Rochelle
  
  




• Sherry R. Schachter, PhD, FT, RN, Director Bereavement Services at Calvary Hospital/Hospice
  
  




• Dale G. Larson, PhD, Professor of Counseling Psychology at Santa Clara University
  
  




• Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH, Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers
  
  




• George Bonanno, PhD, Professor at Columbia University and author of "The Other Side of Sadness: What the New Science of Bereavement Tells us about Life After Loss."
  




• Steven L. Thomason, MD, MDiv, Chief Medical Officer at Circle of Life Hospice of Northwest Arkansas

Register Now for Important Ethics Training

Hospice Foundation of America's newest educational program, End-of-Life Ethics, becomes available April 19, 2012 on DVD only. Site registration is only $150, but act fast; Registration increases to $200 starting March 15, 2012.

End-of-Life Ethics will explore ethical dilemmas and decisions that occur at the end of life, the principles of ethical decision making, and the effects of these decisions on families and staff. In addition, the program will include interviews of those intimately involved with landmark cases that have shaped end-of-life care in the United States.

This latest program in the annual Living with Grief® series is a must-see for clinicians, ethics committee members, volunteers and non-clinical staff affiliated with your organization.

Three hours of Continuing Education are available for nurses, social workers, counselors, clergy, and more. Registered sites have flexibility to show the program at a time convenient for their organization. CE certificates are available for one year following the DVD release date.

When registering, don't forget to order companion books for your audience! End-of-Life Ethics: A Case Study Approach, is written by ethicists and clinicians and provides a rich guide to ethical decision making using case studies that explore current ethical issues in depth.

Simply click register.hospicefoundation.org to register today!

For more information, visit www.hospicefoundation.org/2012springprogram or call 1-800-854-3402.

Hospice Needs You This Holiday Season

With the holidays quickly approaching, what better way to celebrate the season that to give the gift of compassion to families facing terminal-illness, loss and grief. HFA has worked tirelessly as an advocate for these families and patients. We’ve educated tens of thousands of professionals with better training on important topics such as ethics, pain management, cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and grief. We’ve supported hospices across North America with bereavement materials and funding for children’s grief camps. But we need your help to do more! Hospice Foundation of America will turn 30 years old next year, and we want to celebrate by doing more to help those in need. Can you help us by donating $30 to support HFA in our 30th year of service?


We know you are inundated with requests from many worthy causes, but we ask that you please consider a donation to the Hospice Foundation of America in your annual charitable giving. Any gift, large or small, can help families find the care and resources that are desperately needed for their loved ones and themselves. Will you please give those individuals comfort today?


Donate to Hospice Foundation of America here today, http://www.hospicefoundation.org/donate


All of us at HFA wish you and yours a merry holiday season and happy New Year!

HFA Saddened by Loss of Longtime Board Member

Former Hospice Foundation of America Board Member Thomas E. Bryant died on December 9 in a car accident on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. We are saddened by his loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. As an advocate for hospice care, Bryant served on HFA’s board for many years, helping to shape its growth into an organization recognized nationally and internationally for its consumer and professional education.

National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services

The Journal of Palliative Medicine blog recently posted about the National Standards on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services issued by the Department of Human Services/Office of Minority Health that outline best practices to provide culturally and linguistically competent care.


Listed as a resource is HFA's 2009 book, Living with Grief: Diversity and End-of-Life Care.


HFA is currently offering this title at 40% off the cover price through December 31st.


To receive the discount, use the code: booksale