Tuesday, May 16, 2000- 2:00 p.m.
to 4:00 p.m. at VMS
The members of the steering
committee will be Tim Thompson, MD, Denise Niemira, MD, Zail
Berry, MD, Arnold Golodetz, MD, Diana Peirce, Virginia Fry, John
Campbell, Julie Tonks, Madeleine Mongan, and Julie Wasserman or
Mike Hall from DAD. Others are welcome to join or attend meetings.
Tim will continue to chair our meetings.
We will have two statewide meetings
each year, one coordinated with the Hospice Council in June and
the other coordinated with the Vermont Ethics Network in the fall.
Funding:
1) $30,000 - DAD has this money,
which is allocated to improve quality of life in nursing homes.
They are looking at creating standardized pain assessment and
symptom management guidelines for nursing homes. Diana Peirce is
working on this and will coordinate this project with the work of
our task forces.
2) $10,000 - Money in DAD budget
that was to have been match for RWJ grant we didn't get. We need
to develop a plan for this money, which could be used to pay for
staff to help lead this initiative. Madeleine will contact Mike
Hall, Julie Wasserman and Paula Duncan to discuss this. Tim has
talked with Mike Hall. The money has been allocated to the RWJ
grant, so the money must be shifted by the Governor's office. Mike
Hall thinks this money can be used for regional grants. The way
this will work is communities will apply for money to coordinate
care across institution and agency boundaries. Some of the money
could go towards supporting our central services. Most of this
money comes out of nursing home allocations. So a lot of the forms
will have to be on end-of-life care in nursing homes.
3) $2900 (approx.) - Money raised
for VPCI statewide conferences. Tim will send out a fund raising
letter.
4) $? - Medicaid Drug Utilization
Review (DUR) Cy Jordan and Tim thompson will contact Joe Jacobs at
Medicaid to begin to work on this. Tim will call Zail to discuss
pharmacy protocols for FAHC.
Since the meeting Tim Thompson has
contacted Joe Jacobs and in looking at ways of using the
department's medication data base to study pain management and
symptom control in Vermont. There may be ways of working on a
grant with the department.
Page in VPQHC Quality Report
Cy reported that VPQHC will work
with EXCEL to develop a page in their annual Quality Report that
will address end-of-life care. Ginny will contace Laurie Waite at
VPQHC to learn more about how to proceed with this. Tim has
contacted a funding physician at the National Cancer Institute
about applying for statewide monies.
State Health Plan
A number of our goals will be
included in the Year 2000 Action Plan for the State Health Plan.
This is a step towards including end-of-life care in the next
State Health Plan which will be developed in 2001-2002.
Action Plan
Arnold will take the first crack at
writing an action plan that can be adapted to a grant proposal .
Cy will contact Dr. Bell who has extensive experience in hospice
work. Tim will speak with Letha Mills and Joan Madison to see if
they are interested.
Diana is working on an updated
survey of Hospices and their medical and nursing directors.
Tim has spoken to Dr. Jeff Bell, a
nephrologist, about becoming involved with the project.
There is crucial work to be done on
setting up a web site for VPCI. Madeleine and Stephanie are
coordinating VMS efforts.
Tim has contacted Paul Bengston
from the Hospital Association about 1) possible funding; 2)
setting up 2-3 hospitals in the state as laboratories for change;
3) coordinating efforts at educating boards of trustees and
medical staffs.
