Topic:

Change Meeting Time

Discussion:

Starting meeting at 5:30 when so many folks call in seems too late.

Action:

June 7^th mtg will be from:

 5p.m. to 7 p.m.

VPQHC Quality Report End of Life Chapter

 Helen brought copies of the chapter for folks to review. Ginny submitted data last year that did not get published. Ideas for submission: AG Group discussions. Spotlight ideas: Consolidate the letter Diana sent out to the ExCEL membership; lets everyone know what the group is working on. Denise Niemira will update her work. Sharon will look at data she could submit. Update on Madison-Deanne initiative. (Cindy Vruzzesse at VNA will do)

Helen will email Ginny re: Diana’s letter.

 Helen will send Denise the spotlight format

Send info by May 18th

Opportunity Grant

Due October 2004. Needs to be a planning grant. Denise: describe idea of project without adding to introduction, keep it short and simple. Madeline: we need more info about the tool. How will coalition benefit from the opportunity? Are we talking about adding partners to ExCEL? AG Office, VDH, Funeral Directors, Pain Initiative. Start with who we are: (answer to #3)

Change Budget format to include line items. Will need to cost out food, personel, and facility costs for Excel and coalition member meetings.  

Identify Shared Aims of all coalition members. Identify mission.

Have a paragraph or two describe the coalition Members to further illustrate the importance of our partners.

Need to contact those we’ve identified as coalition members. By doing so we are strengthening the membership of the coalition. Explicitly state the organizations who will be members. Helen will talk with Paul to identify personnel costs. Jessa will write grant with the assistance of VPQ.

Data Sources for Opportunity Grant

Last Act Report Cards, Diana Peirce’s Hospice data, VPQ Quality Report. Use this data to get more info for inclusion in the grant. Use Sharon’s table as an attachment.

Use bullet format; and use graphs as attachments.

How will coalition maintain the momentum from this opportunity?

Can be used with the Pain Initiative. Can also be used in conjunction with the Comprehensive Cancer Control planning grant from the CDC. Can be used to develop baseline to begin ongoing surveillance. Many coalition members may want to include this information for their own organizations purposes.

Survey

Field test 10-20 people. Include a work step that takes field survey info and builds into next step; activity (questions #11). Also need to include in budget time spent writing out next grant application (full survey).

Appendices: use for description of Teno tool. Also include JAMA article about tool.

Need to also determine time line for activities and attach as an appendix.

Will include three sites: Home, Hospital and Nursing Home. Will further identify hospice or non-hospice care.

Zail will write a description of the tool and send to Jessa by the end of this week.

Sharon will use info Zail wrote for Last Acts as part of the introduction.

Jessa will email what she has written for the grand by Friday of this week and accept responses until Mon. or Tues. Grant must be submitted by May 15^th.

How do we think the coalition will benefit from this opportunity?

The coalition will benefit because ExCEL will be validating the survey tool. We will be able to compare VT with national data. Will also increase validation for Brown University for creating the tool.

Advanced Directive/DNR Survey

John Campbell spoke about survey conducted by Bob Orr at FAHC to determine how many Advanced Directives included DNR orders. 154 records were audited in one day. 38 records (25%) had Advanced Directives. 25 Records included DNR orders. Of the charts with DNR orders, none came with the Advanced Directives; 15 came with/from patient, 2 from and agent of the patient, 7 from surrogates (spouse, relative) and 1 was described as a ‘futility issue’. John felt this kind of information would help inform the AG committee work on Advanced Directives.

John would like to present at the Vermont Hospital Association  (VAHHS) to request a similar survey from all VT hospitals.