Regence Foundation awards $195,000 grant to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation
PORTLAND, Ore. — Children with life-threatening illnesses often travel from communities across Oregon to receive specialty care at OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. When no cure is available, however, many families prefer to take their child home and care for them with support from loved ones and community hospices. But for those who don’t feel well enough to make the trip to OHSU Doernbecher, or for those who live outside the Portland metro area, this means leaving behind the specialized pediatric palliative care they receive at Doernbecher.
Soon, families with a seriously ill child won’t have to choose: They can have both the comfort of home and pediatric palliative care. Through a $195,000 Regence Foundation grant to OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital Foundation, a telehealth project will expand access to palliative care for seriously ill children throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, in both metro and rural areas. The project will be run by the Bridges Palliative Care Program at OHSU Doernbecher in partnership with community hospices throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Palliative care is a multidisciplinary specialty focused on reducing the pain and suffering associated with serious and life-limiting diseases. Goals of palliative care include addressing both the physical and emotional symptoms of illness, providing support to patients and their families, and respecting patients’ wishes for care at the end of life. Palliative care can also be provided in conjunction with curative treatment.
“Our goal at The Regence Foundation is to ensure people who are seriously ill have access to the care they need to live well at the end of life,” said Peggy Maguire, Regence Foundation board chair. “While it’s never easy to think about children being so sick, palliative care can truly make a difference in the quality of life for children and their families. That’s why it is critical they have access to it in their own communities.”
The Bridges Palliative Care Program plans to use The Regence Foundation grant funds to hire staff to launch and sustain its telehealth program, purchase iPads for secure video conferencing for Doernbecher staff and hospice partners, cover travel costs associated with set-up and training, and offer ongoing pediatric palliative care education for participants. The iPads will be equipped with special encryption software to ensure confidential, HIPAA-compliant communication between clinicians and patients.
“We’re caring for children and families at a very difficult time in their lives, and we develop strong relationships with them,” said Bridges program director Kathy Perko, P.N.P. “Although we often provide telephone support after they leave the hospital, we’re really limited by what we can’t see. The telehealth program will enable us to give medical and emotional support to these families, as well as resources to their local hospice provider. Oregon and Southwest Washington hospices are excited about this program and will come online as they have patients in their community.”
Current participants include:
- Dr. Davis Wilkins, Medford
- Hospice Southwest, Vancouver
- Little Stars, Sacred Heart Hospice, Eugene
- Partners in Care, Bend
- Serenity Hospice, Portland
- Willamette Valley Hospice, Salem
Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon and The Regence Foundation have been longtime supporters of the Bridges Palliative Care Program. In 2005, Regence BlueCross BlueShield helped launch the Bridges Program with a three-year $150,000 grant. In 2009 The Regence Foundation provided the program with a $52,000 grant to survey pediatric palliative care training needs among community hospice nurses throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington and develop a pediatric hospice training curriculum and DVD.
About The Regence Foundation
The Regence Foundation is the corporate foundation of Regence, the largest health insurer in the Northwest/Intermountain region and a nonprofit independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. A 501(c)3 grantmaking organization, the Foundation partners with organizations driving significant change in health care delivery and accessibility in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Through its Sojourns program, the Foundation also supports organizations advancing quality palliative and end-of-life care. For more information, visit www.RegenceFoundation.org or www.twitter.com/RegenceGives.
About OHSU Doernbecher Children’s Hospital
OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital ranks among the top children’s hospitals in the United States in eight clinical specialties.* It ranks 36th nationally for NIH-awarded pediatric research funding among children’s hospitals affiliated with an academic medical center**, and is one of only 22 NIH-designated Child Health Research Centers in the country. OHSU Doernbecher cares for tens of thousands of children each year from Oregon, southwest Washington and around the nation, resulting in more than 175,000 discharges, surgeries, transports and outpatient visits annually.
Nationally recognized OHSU Doernbecher physicians and nurses provide a full range of pediatric care in the most patient- and family-centered environment. These highly trained clinicians also travel throughout Oregon and southwest Washington, providing specialty care to more than 3,000 children at more than 150 outreach clinics in 15 locations. In addition, OHSU Doernbecher delivers neonatal and pediatric critical care consultation to community hospitals statewide through its state-of-the-art telemedicine network.
* U.S. News Best Children’s Hospitals 2011-12. ** National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions