The EPEC Project Spotlights Trainer Dr. Patricia Bomba [Новость добавлена - 11.03.2008]

When Dr. Patricia Bomba first started producing conferences on end-of-life care in December of 2000, she never imagined how many people she would reach.

Seven years later, her conferences incorporate aspects of EPEC as well as components of Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST), New York State’s version of the Physicians on Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Paradigm and legal aspects of palliative care. Dr. Bomba has always been passionately committed to educating the medical community and the public at large and improving the quality of life for seniors and their families. She was fortunate to have been recruited by Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield, a not-for-profit health plan whose corporate mission includes continually improving the health and health care, including end-of-life care, of the residents of the communities served. She leads quality improvement activities for Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield focused on advance care planning, palliative care,end-of-life care and pain management. Her first conference on end-of-life care, designed for geriatricians and other physicians and health care providers in upstate New York was underwritten by Excellus, with the conference fee of $100 for each of the 42 attendees. Nearly 800 professionals have attended EPEC training since then. Today, the conference has grown to two and-a-half days; and the curriculum has expanded pain information, and integrated guidelines and tools, such as pocket cards for opioids and special sessions on methadone, extra time for medical futility and audience response in the form of pre and post tests. Cultural diversity is also woven in and continues to be a growing component of the curriculum. Despite the increased length of the conference and the expanded curriculum, Dr. Bomba feels strongly that the cost should always be affordable to healthcare providers. She is also interested in the challenge of moving from a physician-centered focus to a more team-oriented approach that is more patient-centered. Dr. Bomba has been thrilled to see how the curriculum, fused with the skills and materials she acquired from EPEC, grows in new directions and meets expanded needs. She would like to hold conferences for healthcare consumers, establish partnerships with business associations and create branches for acute, chronic end-of-life care and cognitive pain.  As part of the strategy for local success for the EPEC conferences, Dr. Bomba reaches out to community organizations such as local and state hospices, rural health education centers and community hospitals. Thanks to grant support and her collaborative community work, Dr. Bomba developed the curriculum and directed two pain conferences attended by more than 300 long term care professionals. In addition to her work on EPEC, Dr. Bomba leads the Community-wide End-of-life/Palliative Care Initiative that has developed a host of concrete projects.  Further information including quantifiable outcomes can be found at http://www.compassionandsupport.org/index.php/about_us. She is working to pilot the MOLST Program in the community in Monroe and Onondaga counties in New York. Through collaboration with EPEC faculty and attendees, awareness of the MOLST Program quickly grew through Upstate New York. Dr. Bomba’s collaborative work with NYSDOH on health policy and her legislative advocacy for the MOLST Program aims to facilitate establishment of MOLST as a statewide program. She chairs the Monroe and Onondaga Counties MOLST Community Implementation Team that oversees the MOLST Community Pilot Project. In 2007 she produced online video presentations on Advance Care Planning and the Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) Program and enhanced the community web site www.compassionandsupport.org. The online video presentation on Advance Care Planning entitled Community Conversations on Compassionate Care aims to encourage individuals to complete advance directives when they are healthy. The MOLST DVD aims to educate and empower patients and families and to serve as a standardized training tool for professionals. The EPEC Project is excited about Dr. Bomba’s ideas for the curriculum. Her work is an example of how EPEC Trainers can take the EPEC curriculum and really make it their own, going on to do great things with it. For further information on Dr. Bomba’s work, readers should visit www.compassionandsupport.org and www.polst.org.