St. John Health (SJH) and the Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life have launched a three-year collaborative project to improve access to and quality of palliative and end of life care for all SJH patients.  The project's goal is to educate patient care teams on how to evaluate patients for palliative and end of life needs, and assure that all patients and their families receive compassionate care with attention to their spiritual, psychosocial and clinical needs as they confront advanced illness.

Palliative care addresses management of symptoms such as pain, nausea, and shortness of breath, with an emphasis on quality of life throughout the course of a chronic, debilitating or life threatening illness.  Although all SJH hospitals provide palliative care, St. John Hospital and Medical Center was selected as the pilot site for the project.  Other SJH sites will share in the benefits of the education and training provided and the tools developed.

Program objectives for the St. John Health - Duke Institute on Care at the End of Life collaboration include:

• Develop a universal screening tool to help the care team identify the most appropriate care for patients at the end of life. 
• Integrate spiritual care providers into palliative and end of life care services, with attention to patients' diverse cultures and religious traditions.
• Help all who provide patient care to improve their skills, confidence and competency in palliative care.
• Engage local faith communities to increase their awareness of palliative and end of life care resources available to them. 
• Implement a culture change among St. John Health clinicians and administrators that will support and sustain palliative care efforts.  

Each of the objectives developed for the collaborative has an action strategy that measures the objective's impact.