While the availability of palliative care helped to curb healthcare utilization costs for 70 percent of respondents and improve patient satisfaction levels for 88 percent of respondents, according to 2014 market data from the Healthcare Intelligence Network, 52 percent reported that timely referrals to palliative care pose a serious challenge.

A September 2014 Institute of Medicine consensus report, "Dying in America: Improving Quality and Honoring Individual Preferences Near the End of Life," found that palliative care is associated with a higher quality of life, including better understanding and communication, access to home care, emotional and spiritual support, well-being and dignity, care at time of death, and lighter symptom burden�in short, enhancing the patient experience.

2014 Healthcare Benchmarks: Palliative Care documents emerging trends in palliative care at more than 200 healthcare organizations, from the timing for initial palliative care consults to individuals on the palliative care team to the impact this specialized care is having on healthcare utilization and the patient experience — two critical markers of healthcare performance.

For more information or to order your copy today:
http://store.hin.com/product.asp?itemid=4808

This all-new research report is supported with dozens of graphs and tables and describes emerging trends in palliative care, including the members of the palliative care team and the venues where palliative care is administered.

If you are already a Healthcare Intelligence Network Benchmark subscriber, then this report is FREE for you.

Not a member, but want to receive all of our benchmark reports for one year for just $695...a $500 savings! Simply sign up for HIN's Benchmark Subscription, and you'll get access to these palliative care benchmarks and upcoming benchmark reports on health risk stratification, embedded case management and more. Click here to sign up for this limited time offer today: http://store.hin.com/HIN-Benchmark-Series-Member_p_4664.html

This report provides a high-level look at overall responses and also drills down to sector-specific views from hospitals/health systems and health plans in the following areas:

• Availability of current and planned palliative care programs;
• Top tools for identifying candidates for palliative care;
• Risk stratification tools to determine palliative care eligibility;
• Key characteristics of the palliative care population;
• Prevalence of palliative care program components — metrics on pain and symptom management, spiritual counseling, caregiver education, and more;
• Successful palliative care tools, workflows and strategies — all in respondents' own words;
• Challenges of palliative care;
• Impact of palliative care on the key metrics of reimbursement, hospital and ER utilization, patient and caregiver satisfaction, medication adherence, and other data points.
• ROI from palliative care;

and much more.

For more information or to order your copy today, click here now:
http://store.hin.com/product.asp?itemid=4808

Available in Single or Multi-User Licenses

A multi-user license will provide you with the right to install and use this information on your company's computer network for an unlimited number of additional workstations within your organization for a one-time fee. To have this valuable resource on your network, or to inquire about ordering bulk copies in print or Adobe PDF, please e-mail sales@hin.com or call 888-446-3530.

P.S. -- You may also be interested in these palliative care resources:

• Case Management for Advanced Illness: Best Practices in End-of-Life Care
• 2013 Healthcare Benchmarks: Home Visits
• Handbook of Palliative Care, 3rd Edition