<p> Rural Palliative Care Networking Group Thursday, September, 18, 2014 10:00 a.m. – noon </p><p>Educational Topic “Measures for Rural Palliative Care Programs,” presented by Karla Weng and Laura Grangaard, Stratis Health</p><p>Session Description As rural and community-based palliative care programs continue to emerge, it will be important to establish metrics for quality, likely in the form of standard measures. Quality measures provide a standard across settings and benchmarks to make comparisons valid. Even within hospital-based palliative care programs, standard quality measures are relatively new or have not been standardized, and measures for community-based programs are almost non-existent. The objective of this study was to identify and field-test a set of quality measures that reflect clinical quality, cost and efficiency, and the patient and family experience. Five rural palliative care programs participated in the study.</p><p>Session Objectives – As a result of this session, learners will be able to:  Describe the environmental context in which it is increasingly important for palliative care programs to measure clinical effectiveness, patient/family satisfaction, and costs.  Share findings from a measures pilot with five rural Minnesota community-based palliative care programs that collected measures looking at clinical quality, satisfaction, and utilization.  Identify opportunities and tools available to implement data collection processes in their own palliative care program</p><p>Participate in person Lakeland Home Care & Lakeland Hospice 805 E. Channing Ave. Fergus Falls, MN 56537</p><p>Participate via conference call If you cannot attend in person, you are welcome to attend via conference call. Call-in information will be provided after registration. </p><p>Register To register for in-person attendance, click here To register for conference call attendance, click here</p><p>The Rural Palliative Care Networking Group This group meets quarterly to network and learn from those interested in providing palliative care services in rural areas. People from all disciplines and settings are welcome and encouraged to participate. The Rural Palliative Care Networking Group is coordinated by Stratis Health and supported with funding from UCare. There is no fee to participate. For questions about the group, contact Janelle Shearer, Stratis Health program manager, 952-853-8553, [email protected].</p><p>2</p>