CAPC Palliative Care Program Spotlight

Dr. Carl Robert Grey is a Geriatric Medicine Specialist and Co-Director of the Palliative Care Program at Wake Forest Baptist Health in North Carolina. At the time of recording, Dr. Grey was only weeks into his position at Wake Forest. In this episode, he discusses the importance of mentorship, embracing new ideas and innovations, and why he believes having a healthy work/life balance is a key ingredient to successful palliative care staff.

In this episode of the program spotlight series, Mary Alfano-Torres, Medical Director for Chapters Health Palliative Care in Florida, discusses how she prepared her staff to handle the enormous growth her program has experienced. With success comes growing pains and the need to balance the business and patient services is never more important.

How to Better Care for Dementia Patients by Center to Advance Palliative Care

In this episode, Dr. Bob Bergamini of Mercy Palliative Care Services in St. Louis steps into the program spotlight to discuss how his program has fought to reduce readmission rates for his institution. This engaging chat is brought to you by the Center to Advance Palliative Care.

Adriane Mackie RN and Jennifer Blechman MD of Partners in Care in Oregon step into the program spotlight to discuss building and growing an outpatient palliative care program. In this episode, Jennifer and Adriane chat about working with referring physicians to create a culture where upstream palliative care is seen as an extension of their care.

The Rev. Kelley Woggon, M.Div., BCC of Norton Healthcare in Louisville, Kentucky steps into the palliative care program spotlight to discuss her palliative care program's push to move into the outpatient setting. In this chat, Kelley breaks down her challenges and successes into branching out which include staff training, communication with referring physicians, and maintaining institutional support. Kelley also describes the process of how her team recently became Joint Commission Certified in palliative care.

Palliative care specialists can often feel spread thin especially if the team is understaffed or overbooked with consults. Dr. Wendy L. Knowlton, a Hospice and Palliative Care Specialist with Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Washington, understands firsthand what it's like to feel burnt out. In this engaging conversation, Wendy opens up about a time when she felt overwhelmed and exhausted from the difficulties of the job and how that moment changed the way she manages her team today.

Inge DiPasquale, RN steps into the Program Spotlight to discuss how building relationships with referring physicians helped build her program from the ground up in just three years.

Julie Lehn, PharmD, is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Palliative Care at Banner Health in Phoenix, AZ. in this podcast, she discusses how adding a Pharmacist to a palliative care team can save an institution money, increase referrals, and reduce readmissions. Find out how in this engaging chat.

With great success comes even greater challenges. How do you staff appropriately when your consults grow in big numbers? How do you scale your business model to continue to reach the right patients? Our guest on this episode is Teresa Harvey of Transitions Lifecare in Raleigh, NC whose program recently jumped from 300 consults to 800. In this chat, Teresa discusses her bundled payment model, her need for finding and training the right staff, and her desire to expand the program's reach in the community setting. If you have questions about growing, sustaining, and managing a palliative care program, visit www.CAPC.org.