New Issue Focuses on

End-of-Life Care Issues

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) announces the December 18issue of the Health Care Innovations Exchange (http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov).

The featured Innovations describe three programs that aimed to increase rates of advance care planning: one that provided education and trained nonphysician facilitators to guide patients and their families in advance care planning; another in which a State-mandated council focused on end-of-life policy issues; and a third in which care coordinators used a culturally sensitive, tailored approach to discuss advance care directives with seniors.
The featured QualityTools include a program and a Web site that offer resources to help people make informed decisions about end-of-life care and services, as well as a program that offers health care professionals the tools, training, and technical assistance necessary to start successful palliative care programs.
To access more innovation profiles and tools related to end-of-life care, go to
(http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov/innovations_qualitytools.aspx?categoryID=54552&taxonomyID=9290).

Spotlight:

New PerspectiveNational Initiative Uses Medical Order Forms To Translate Patients’ End-of-Life Wishes Into Action
http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov/content.aspx?id=4059

Events and Podcasts:

December TweetChatThank you for participating in the December 3 TweetChat, Chats on Change: Creating a Successful Health Information Exchange, with Randy Farmer, Chief Operating Officer for the Delaware Health Information Network. The event transcript is now available on the Event page.
http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov/webevents/index.aspx?id=58

View the latest issue and search for Innovations and QualityTools using your phone or tablet on the new mobile site http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov/issue.aspx.

New issues of the Innovations Exchange are published biweekly on Wednesdays, with the exception of January. The first 2014 issue will be published on January 15. Please contact us at info@innovations.ahrq.gov with any questions or comments.

Follow the Innovations Exchange (AHRQIX) on Twitter with this hyperlink:http://www.twitter.com/ahrqix.