Aloha Kōkua Mau, 

In his bestselling books, Atul Gawande, a practicing surgeon, has fearlessly revealed the struggles of his profession. Now he examines its ultimate limitations and failures - in his own practices as well as others' - as life draws to a close. And he discovers how we can do better.

 

National HealthCare Decisions Day is 6 months away and an opportunity "to inspire, educate & empower the public & providers about the importance of advance care planning."

Now is the time to start planning for an event at your facility or organization. Visit their website for lots of good tools to get you started including press releases, posters, letters to stakeholders, etc. http://www.nhdd.org/tools/

And let us know what you are doing so you can inspire others. 

Kōkua Mau has an easy to understand 2-side Advance Directive that is used by facilities around the state.

We are in the process of updating the form and will let you know when the new form is ready. The old form will still be valid.

Additionally, several agencies which use the form would like to have translations of the form as they comply with Medicare/Medicaid quality measures. If you are interested in translations of the advance directive form, please let Jeannette know.

Register now for Hawaii's premier Palliative Care conference:  the The Fine Art & Science of Pain & Palliative Care, Hawaii's own Queen's Medical Center Annual Pain and Palliative Care Conference.

• Cutting edge of palliative care research
• Interventional pain management
• Opioid safety: compassionate,
• responsible prescribing
• Novel palliative approaches
• Rational palliative chemotherapy
• Normalizing grief experiences
• Rediscovering grief traditions

Featured Guest Faculty:

• Jay R. Horton, PhD, ACHPN
• Thomas J. Smith, MD, FACP, FASCO, FAAHPM

"A new video campaign gives patients a voice on treatment options" by Susan Essoyan was a front page article in the Star Advertiser from September 29.  This article outlines the ACP Decisions videos, which many facilities around the state are using to facilitate conversations on treatment issues.  You can read more about these short, videos from acpdecisions.org and contact Robert Eubanks at HMSA if you are interested in getting the videos for your facility.  HMSA is paying for the license for facilities across the state so there is no cost to you. 

The article is available on-line (but you need to be a subscriber to get full access). Please contact us if you would like a PDF copy of the article.

On Friday September 12, 2014 Hawaii Public Radio aired an interview with Jeannette Koijane on Kōkua Mau for their Helping Hands segment.  You can hear the 5 minute interview at: 

http://hpr2.org/post/helping-hand-kokua-mau

Up Close: A Field Guide to Community-Based Palliative Care in California describes the main characteristics of these programs, the challenges they face, and the promising practices they have developed. 

The Field Guide is available online.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has released an extensive, book-length report on the state of end-of-life care in the United States today, providing a number of recommendations for how to move the field forward in the years to come. The 507-page document, titled "Dying in America," was funded by a $1.5 million anonymous donation, and has been spurred by the "death panel" controversy surrounding end-of-life care that emerged during the debates surrounding the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The report concludes that the US medical system as it stands is ill prepared to provide the end-of-life care that Americans need, and that there exists a significant discrepancy between the care that individuals receive at the end of life and what they actually desire.

We have included links here to key portions of the report which show that Hawaii is on the right track for improving care at the end of life although we all have much work to do. 

Congratulations to Lisa Dahms from Maui Memorial Medical Center, Palliative Care for being nominated for the Mana `Olana - Nurse of Hope awards by the Hawaii Oncology Nursing Society. 

Are you looking for articles on palliative care and end-of-life issues?    Here is a great FREE resource to get copies of articles sent to you.  You can email requests to library@hospicewr.org or visit their website.

The End-of-LIfe Library and the Katie Dolesh Family Reference Collection at Hospice of the Western Reserve provides an on-line catalog, virtual library services and professional library assistance.

All POLST materials on the Kōkua Mau website have been update to reflect the main improvement that APRNs will be able to sign a POLST - now called Provider Orders for Life Sustaining Treatments.

FAQ:

1. All POLST forms filled out and signed by a physician before July 1, 2014 remain valid!  
2. The 'old' POLST forms with the word 'physician orders' are still valid. We recommend that you only use the new POLST form (Provider Orders) after July 1, 2014.  It has a new added section E and quite a few wording changes and clarifications.

Thanks to a great collaborative effort, including many Kōkua Mau members, in getting the new expanded POLST legislation signed into law! Gov. Abercrombie signed the bill (HB2052) on June 30 and Act 154 went into effect on July 1. more

Many individuals and organizations represented and actively supported the POLST Task Force so this was truly a statewide hui. Thank you for your support, testimony, expertise and countless last minute emails!

Please visit the Kōkua Mau website (including a picture with the Governor) for the new POLST forms and handouts.  Our Kōkua Mau website is the central source for (up-to-date) POLST information for Hawai'i.

• (Updated) POLST information for providers (and PDF of the new form)
• (Updated) POLST information for consumers

Jeannette Koijane

 Join Kōkua Mau

Membership is the backbone of Kōkua Mau's budget and helps us to be a financially sustainable organization. Just follow the steps outlined on our website.