Abstract
The Cleveland Clinic is a large multi-specialty group practice. The need for a palliative care program was identified and the program started in 1987. A key concept has been that the existing structure of hospice care as defined by Medicare is insufficient to address the needs of patients with incurable disease. The field of palliative medicine implies physician expertise in several key areas: (1) communication; (2) decision-making; (3) management of complications; (4) symptom control; (5) care of the dying; and (6) psychosocial care. The development of the program (the first in the United States) since 1987 has put in place the following major services, listed consecutively: (1) hospital consultation service; (2) outpatient clinics; (3) acute care inpatient service; (4) hospice and home care service; (5) acute-care palliative medicine inpatient unit; and (6) hospice inpatient facility. Program development has meant that a new program has been introduced approximately every 18 months since the start of the program. This has considerable implications for staffing, the management of change, and competition for scarce resources within a contracting health care budget.
The staffing of the program has focused on developing specialized attending physicians using a multidisciplinary approach dedicated to enhancing the role of nursing in the field. The major budgeted areas are (1) the acute-care palliative medicine unit, and (2) the hospice and home care service. Specific commitment has been made to research and education because of the desire to develop an intellectual basis for the practice of palliative medicine. This requires structured activities in both areas with a systematic approach to research and education.
The complexity of developing a service should not be underestimated. There has been consistent support for the program by senior leadership within the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, including the cancer center. The major lessons learned during program development have been: (1) to focus on quality of patient care; (2) to commit to academic endeavor in research and education; (3) to secure institutional commitment to program development; (4) to establish a positive, proactive, businesslike approach; (5) to defend budget and personnel, albeit within a difficult time in health care; and (6) to commit to success, i.e., never promise anything on which you do not deliver. The future development of post-acute-care services serving predominantly the chronically ill elderly population suggest an expanded administrative and conceptual role for the future development of palliative medicine to help serve the needs of the aging population in the United States.