Coalition for Quality at End of Life Works to Achieve National Best Practices

Experts across the state joined the CQEL meeting.

The Coalition for Quality at the End of Life (CQEL) held a statewide quarterly meeting for over 50 attendees on June 24, organized by the Jewish Healthcare Foundation (JHF). Special guest, Susan Tolle, MD, Chair of the Oregon POLST Coalition and Director of the Center for Ethics in Healthcare gave a presentation discussing different states' approaches to POLST quality assurance activities and how they are working to align POLST orders with patient wishes. It was with Dr. Tolle's guidance and inspiration that JHF worked to establish CQEL and advance POLST in PA 15 years ago under the leadership of Robert Arnold MD, Chief, Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics at the University of Pittsburgh, Judy Black, MD, Medical Advisor to JHF, and Nancy Zionts, MBA, JHF COO & Chief Program Officer. The attendees were able to discuss next steps for how PA POLST could advance to achieve national best practice and policy, and how approaches to conversations about vaccine hesitancy and end-of-life could inform one another. Local physician and clinical innovation leader Mylynda Massart, MD, PhD, Medical Director of the UPMC Primary Care Precision Medicine Center was the second featured speaker. Her presentation discussed addressing vaccine hesitancy in underserved communities and long-term care facilities, and she suggested that these conversations have similar themes to those discussing end-of-life care.