Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) Announces the Winners of the Second Round of The John A. Hartford Foundation Tipping Point Challenge

October 27, 2021

New York, New York (October 27, 2021) — Innovative in-home palliative care for rural underserved populations and texting to find the Tipping Point are two of twelve winners announced today in the second round of The John A. Hartford Foundation Tipping Point Challenge. The Tipping Point Challenge is sponsored by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) and The John A. Hartford Foundation.

“High-quality care for the millions of people living with serious illness means that clinicians from all specialties and disciplines must provide effective, patient-centered communication and pain and symptom management, and that patients with the most complex needs must have access to palliative care specialists,” said CAPC CEO, Brynn Bowman. “The Challenge is helping us reach this tipping point of change in US healthcare.”

The goal of this round was to catalyze innovation that will make positive, breakthrough change in the care of serious illness. Open to all health care organizations, settings, disciplines, and specialties across the US, more than 100 initiatives were submitted, including those from hospitals, health systems, clinics, and payers. Each submission was rigorously peer-reviewed by an expert panel and evaluated using five criteria: Impact, Evidence-Base, Feasibility, Scalability, and Sustainability. Awards were given for initiatives already implemented as well as for those in the planning stage.

“We congratulate each of the Tipping Point Challenge winners for their innovative and groundbreaking approaches to ensuring that older adults and others living with serious illness have access to the highest quality health care,” said Terry Fulmer, PhD, RN, FAAN, president of The John A. Hartford Foundation. “Because of their work, patients and families will experience improved interactions with better-trained health care providers, resulting in better quality of life.”

The winners are:

Gold

Project: Training Initiative to Improve Palliative Care Accessibility in Western Kenya
Submitted by: The AMPATH Consortium, led by Indiana University School of Medicine

Project: Optum CA Outpatient Palliative Care Program
Submitted by: Optum California

Project: Primary Palliative Care RN Resource Team
Submitted by: Sarasota Memorial Hospital

Gold, Planning Stage

Project: Texting to Find the Tipping Point
Submitted by: Parkland Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center

Silver

Project: Choices: Innovative In-home Palliative Care Program for Rural Underserved Population
Submitted by: Helios Care

Project: The CaLM Model: Hardwiring Cancer Centers for Whole Person Care
Submitted by: Livestrong Cancer Institutes of the Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin

Project: Serial Interdisciplinary Write-Read-Reflect Narrative Experiences To Meaningfully Strengthen Reflective Listening Skills
Submitted by: The Narrative Initiative and St. Lukes University Health Network

Silver, Planning Stage

Project: Uncovering Palliative Care Need in a Medicaid-funded Assisted Living Facility
Submitted by: NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and The New Jewish Home

Bronze

Project: Screening Question on Discrimination for Inpatient Palliative Care Consults
Submitted by: NYU Langone Health

Project: Mass Production of Compassionate Communication in the Era of COVID-19
Submitted by: Parkland Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center

Project: From Service to Center: Leading Palliative Innovations for Complex Populations
Submitted by: The University of Mississippi Medical Center

Bronze, Planning Stage

Project: Addressing Social Determinants of Health through Screening and Resource Referrals
Submitted by: Ascension

About the Center to Advance Palliative Care

The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) is a national organization dedicated to increasing the availability of quality health care for people living with a serious illness. As the nation’s leading resource in its field, CAPC provides health care professionals and organizations with the training, tools, and technical assistance necessary to effectively meet this need. CAPC is part of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. http://www.capc.org and tippingpointchallenge.capc.org. Follow @CAPCpalliative.

About The John A. Hartford Foundation

The John A. Hartford Foundation, based in New York City, is a private, nonpartisan, national philanthropy dedicated to improving the care of older adults. The leader in the field of aging and health, the Foundation has three priority areas: creating age-friendly health systems, supporting family caregivers, and improving serious illness and end-of-life care. For more information, visit johnahartford.org and follow @johnahartford.

Media Contact: John Zoccola @ [email protected] or 267.664.2759