CAPC, Hartford Foundation Collaborate on Palliative Care Innovation

The John A. Hartford Foundation is collaborating with the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) on the “Tipping Point Challenge,” intended to spur innovation and quality improvement in serious illness care.

All health care organizations, settings, disciplines and specialties nationwide are eligible to participate in the 10-month program, in which providers receive an honorarium to achieve significant change in the care of serious, chronic and life-limiting illness.

“Organizations from across the country will get to share their best work and ideas. This is how we begin to make systemic change,” said CAPC Director, Diane Meier, M.D. “CAPC started the Tipping Point Challenge last year with a call to build palliative care knowledge and skills among all frontline clinicians, sparking multiple imaginative solutions. The new challenge is broader in approach, scale, scope, and complexity. The success of the first Tipping Point Challenge led us to create the second – the quest for innovation in training non-palliative care clinicians, systemwide integration of palliative care, and reaching patients and families in need.”

Health care providers can apply between June 2020 and March 2021. CAPC will announce 25 finalists from the high-scoring projects in July 2021 and will announce winning organizations in Nov. 2021.

A key goal of the program is to further develop palliative care skills among clinicians who typically do not work in that specialty, such as communication strategies, pain and symptom management process, particularly among clinicians who specialize in treating congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer.

The initiative also seels to improve access to specialty palliative care for patients and families throughout the health care continuum and to encourage providers to implement population health strategies to help identify patients in need of those services.

“The John A. Hartford Foundation is improving the care of older adults through support for the Tipping Point Challenge and its recognition and showcasing of the top 25 innovations,” said Terry Fulmer, president of The John A. Hartford Foundation. “We are committed to identifying and communicating about powerful solutions that can accelerate high-impact change.”