June 2021

PA POLST Awarded McElhattan Foundation Grant

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation and Pennsylvania POLST have been awarded a grant from the McElhattan Foundation to support efforts to enhance access to POLST education for providers across the state. This grant will support initiatives to enrich the POLST curriculum through development of virtual education modules. 

The COVID-19 pandemic reshaped how POLST education can be delivered. Pennsylvania POLST plans to create self-paced online modules that will allow for a greater number of individuals to access POLST education and enable POLST to continue to provide resources to help assure that patient preferences for care at the end of life are respected. A POLST Curriculum Committee was established with members from healthcare organizations across the state to update existing curriculum and develop new training modules. 

Additional information about accessing the new education modules will be available Summer 2021.

POLST Focus for June CQEL Meeting

The Coalition for Quality at End-of-Life (CQEL) is convening their next meeting on Thursday, June 24th with a focus on updates from National and Pennsylvania POLST. 

The session will also feature a presentation by Dr. Susan Tolle, Chair of the Oregon POLST Coalition and Director of the Center for Ethics in Healthcare. Dr. Tolle’s presentation “Aligning POLST Orders with Wishes: Time to Put Evidence into Practice” will discuss different states’ approaches to POLST quality assurance activities. The Journal of American Geriatrics Society recently published Dr. Tolle’s editorial of the same title which discusses the importance of implementing best practices and five considerations of POLST use. The publication can be accessed here and additional details about the figures in the article is provided in a brief video “Do Not Count POLST Forms” here. 

If you are interested in attending the upcoming presentation, please RSVP to Nicole Greer at greer@jhf.org. 

New POLST Legislation Introduced in PA Senate

Senate Bill 572 was introduced by prime sponsor Pennsylvania Senator Eugene Yaw and co-sponsors Senators J. Ward, Baker, Phillips-Hill and Haywood on April 16th 2021. The bill reintroduces legislation to update and revise Pennsylvania law (Title 20) so that it includes the codification of POLST to be used by medical professionals in all healthcare settings for individuals who wish to voluntarily complete a POLST document. 

Additional information about Senate Bill 572 can be accessed here.

Update to National POLST Map

National POLST has updated designations for states participating in National POLST activities. The new map which can be accessed here has removed language about “mature” status and has updated descriptions to include:

• “Endorsed” indicating active programs that have shown their form and program meet national standards;
• “Active” indicating that the program has at least one leader actively participating in National POLST governance and;
• “Unaffiliated” indicating programs that do not have any POLST program leadership involvement in National POLST governance and their programs are not reviewed by National POLST. 

Additional information about the changes can be found here.

Upcoming Webinars

National POLST is hosting a five-part webinar series to promote the National POLST Technology Guide. The next webinar in the series on Tuesday, June 15th at 3:30pm EST will focus on interoperability and sharing POLST orders electronically across systems. Register here or view the list of webinars on the National POLST website.

Pediatric Palliative Care Coalition is conducting a Pediatric Palliative Care Webinar Series to increase pediatric palliative care visibility and enhance clinician’s competency. You can register here for upcoming webinars such as Including and Supporting Siblings in Non-traditional, Multi-cultural Families on Tuesday, June 22nd at 3:00pm EST.

Thank you for your continuing support of POLST.

Judith Black, MD, MHA

National POLST Plenary Assembly

Jewish Healthcare Foundation Medical Advisor

blackjs352@gmail.com

Nicole Greer, MPH, MPA, RN

PA POLST Coordinator

info@papolst.org

Coalition for Quality at the End of Life (CQEL)

Jewish Healthcare Foundation

EQT Plaza

625 Libery Ave, Ste. 2500

Pittsburgh, PA 15222

412-594-2550

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