3rd Kōkua Mau
eNewsletter
May 19,  2014


Aloha Kōkua Mau,

May is a busy month and the new topics are listed first. We hope you can join us for Palliative Pupus and our monthly Kokua Mau meeting.

Wed. 5/21 Palliative Pupus

Please join us for another dynamic, inter-disciplinary, case-based discussion from the cutting edge of hospice and palliative care: Palliative Pupus.

This month's case involves end-of-life decision-making for a dying child.  When there is conflict among the clinical team, who decides?

Wed. May 21
5:15 to 7:00 PM
The Queens Conference Center (QCC) Room 200
510 S. Beretania Street
Honolulu, HI 96813

Good to know

The American Bar Association has developed a smartphone app intended to make health care directives quickly and easily accessible. The lite version is just for Advance Directives but the Pro version ($3.99) allows storing of AD, POLST and other forms as well as a lot of other features. If anyone uses it, please let us know your experiences.

Thank you to Melissa Bojorquez for sharing that link with us.

 

Wed. 5/28 Alzheimer's Presentation

A special presentation to celebrate Older American's Month:
  • Hawai`i 2025: State Plan on Alzheimer's Disease & Related Dementias 
Wes Lum, PhD, Director, Executive Office on Aging and Kōkua Mau board member and Jody Mishan, coordinator and Kōkua Mau member, will provide an overview of the State Plan on Alzheimer's Disease & Related Dementias. Learn the recommendations, the five goals and more importantly, the next steps for the implementation of the state plan.

Wed. May 28, 2014
7:30 a.m. - 9:00 a.m.
Registration starts at 7:00 a.m.
The Plaza Club
900 Fort Street Mall, 20th Floor

Continental breakfast is sponsored by The Plaza Assisted Living. Validated parking is available.

RSVP required by Friday, May 23, 2014 to Shannon Miyazaki at or by phone 833-8880

Thur. 5/29 Kōkua Mau Meeting

We hope you can join us for the Monthly Kokua Mau Meeting this month.  Our guest speaker will be Heather Chun from the Executive Office on Aging talking about Time Banking for Respite Care.  This is a new concept for Hawaii and Heather will be describing the pilot project she is working on.  Additionally there will be updates and announcements so if you would like to be included on the agenda, contact Jeannette

Thursday May 29
3pm-5pm
Conference Room 224
Weinberg Building
St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii
2226 Liliha Street in Honolulu

 

In this Issue and from Past Newsletters:
5/21 Palliative Pupus
New App for AHCD
5/28 Alzheimer's Presentation
5/29 Kokua Mau Meeting
Latest news from Hawai'i
Congratulations to Kapiolani
Kaiser achieves Advance Palliative Care Certfication
POLST Legislation Update
5/22 Bereavement Network
Video: Confronting Mortality
Tool Kit: CHF
Please Join Kokua Mau
Latest news from Hawai'i

St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawai'i will close its 24-bed hospice unit in Ewa (O'ahu) next to The Queen's Medical Center West O'ahu on Sept. 30, 2014. It will keep its second hospice facility in Nu'uanu, and it will also maintain its home-based hospice care, which provides the bulk of its hospice care. Details in Pacific Business News.

Islands Hospice will be opening an in-patient hospice house in Kahalui, Maui. Details in Pacific Business News.  

Congratulation on Advance Palliative Care Certification Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children

Congratulations to Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children for receiving the Advanced Certification for Palliative Care from The Joint Commission on April 24, 2014.  

Certification for Palliative Care is designed to recognize hospital inpatient programs that demonstrate exceptional patient and family-centered care in order to optimize the quality of life for patients with serious illnesses.

Congratulations to everyone at Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children and HPH for all of the hard work this certification represents and their commitment to palliative care in Hawai'i.  They join Queen's Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente in achieving this distinction and shows the growing commitment to palliative care around Hawaii. 

Congratulation on Advance Palliative Care Certification to Kaiser

 

Congratulations to Kaiser Permanente for receiving Advanced Certification for Palliative Care for their Inpatient Palliative Care Program at Moanaloa Hospital from The Joint Commission on March 13, 2014.

 

Certification for Palliative Care is designed to recognize hospital inpatient programs that demonstrate exceptional patient and family-centered care in order to optimize the quality of life for patients with serious illnesses.They are the first Kaiser hospital in the country to receive this designation and had a perfect score!   

 

Congratulations to everyone at Kaiser for all of the hard work this certification represents and their commitment to palliative care in Hawai'i.   

 

POLST Legislation

We are happy to report the the POLST legislation to expand signing privileges to APRNs is waiting for the Governor's signature and should go into effect on July 1!! 

Many thanks to everyone who helped to make this possible especially Senator Roz Baker who introduced the bill and Senator Josh Green and Representative Della Au Belatti who helped move it through the process. 

The Kōkua Mau POLST Task Force is made up of Drs. Cherylee Chang and Daniel Fischberg, Queen's Medical Center; Dr. Libby Char; Ken Zeri, Hospice Hawaii; Keith Ridley, DOH; and Jeannette Koijane, Kōkua Mau.  Additionally we had great support from Malia Espinda, QMC, and Kathleen Yokouchi and Valisa Saunders, Hawaii State Center for Nursing. 

There was support for the legislation from a wide variety of organizations who submitted supportive testimony and attended hearings throughout the process including Healthcare Association of Hawaii, The Queen's Medical Center, Hawaii Pacific Health, HMSA, The Department of Health, the Executive Office on Aging, UHA, the Hawaii Association of Health Plans, the Hawaii Association of Professional Nurses, Hawaii State Rural Health Association, the American Organization of Nurse Executives, American Association of Nurse Practitioners, UH Manoa School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene, Maui County Office on Aging, Hawaii Medical Association, Hawaii Island Family Medicine Residency, Lanai Community Health Center, and a cadre of individual well-spoken nurses, many of whom are Kōkua Mau members. 

We are now working on revising the forms, updating the website and developing support material.  We will also be developing training materials so if you are interested in a POLST training, please let Jeannette know

 

Thurs. 5/22 Bereavement Network of Hawaii

The next quarterly meeting will be held

Thursday, May 22, 2014
,  
11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Borthwick Mortuary

1330 Maunakea Street

 

Please RSVP by 5/15 to [email protected] 

 

The presenter will be Cynthia White, E.D., Kids Hurt Too, "Integrating Hawaiian Culture into Grief Support Services" plus film: "Poi For the Soul"

  

Video: Confronting Mortality

The recent New York Academy of Science & Nour Foundation Forum in New York City "Confronting Mortality: Faith and Meaning Across Cultures" is now online. It is a discussion with Kokua Mau's own Lani Leary and Dr. Kripal and Dr. Kellehear.  Thank you to Lani for sharing the link with us.

 

GMCF Tool Kit: Reducing Hospitalization of Home Health Patients with CHF


You may be interested in this best practice home health tool kit: "Reducing Hospitalization of Home Health Patients with CHF."  The purpose of this Tool Kit, developed by Alliant GMCF, also known as Georgia Medical Care Foundation (GMCF), is to assist Home Health Agencies in managing patients with congestive heart failure.

The PDF of the 27 page document can be found on our website. Thank you to Robert Eubanks for sharing the tool kit with us.


Please Join Kōkua Mau and Support our work!! 

As we start May, we encourage you to please renew your Kōkua Mau Membership. In honor of 2014 we are striving for 114 members this year. And yes, membership is tax-deductible.  


Membership and donations are an essential part of keeping Kōkua Mau fiscally sustainable. Individual Membership starts at $40 although the average membership is $100 and we welcome any level of support. We especially encourage organizational membership by community leaders that support our mission. Please contact Jeannette for details.

 

And indeed, with all donations going into programs we don't offer you a t-shirt, a tote bag with our logo, or even a pencil.  We can offer you: the low cost version of a virtual Kokua Mau mug

How do I join?

 

Please download our membership form and put it with a check in the good old mail. Or all online: chose your membership level and click the Donate Now button on the right hand side of the webpage. Please put 'membership' in the 'Designation (Optional)' field, click 'add to giving cart' and follow the subsequent steps. We know, the free version of network for good does not look exciting but it is free. Thank you! 

 

Benefits of Joining Kōkua Mau?

 

Kōkua Mau, is a local non-profit, community-benefit organization. (We are not a state agency!) Kōkua Mau is fueled by the passion of dedicated volunteers with a lean budget and every penny spent on making our work possible. Your generous tax-deductible gift will allow us to have a real impact on improving quality of life for those with serious illness and their loved ones.    


For over 14 years, Kōkua Mau has been a voice for outstanding hospice and palliative care and services in Hawai'i, providing high-quality information, trainings and ever growing networking opportunities.

 

Please contact Jeannette with any questions. 

Best wishes,

Jeannette Koijane
Executive Director
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