Three Programs Recognized as 2023 Circle of Life Award Honorees

WASHINGTON (July 11, 2023) — Two programs will be honored with the 2023 Circle of Life Awards for their efforts in palliative and end-of-life care. The winning programs are the Palliative Care Program at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Md., and the Center for Hospice Care, Mishawaka, Ind. In addition, Prospero Health in Boston will be recognized with a Citation of Honor. All three will receive this prestigious recognition during the AHA's Leadership Summit in Seattle on July 17.

The Circle of Life Awards honor hospital and palliative care programs that are ensuring equitable access to care, implementing nontraditional models of care delivery and payment, fully integrating palliative care into a system of care or a community, making palliative care financially sustainable, developing meaningful measures and metrics to track progress, or partnering with payers, other providers, community groups and faith communities.

“This year’s AHA Circle of Life award honorees have implemented timely, safe and efficient palliative and end-of-life care programs,” said Rick Pollack, AHA President and CEO. “Whether addressing disparities in access to palliative care, providing grief counseling or developing clinical quality metrics, these innovative programs play an instrumental role in serving people with life-limiting illnesses and their families and communities.”

The 2023 honorees are:
 

Palliative Care Program, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, Md.

The Palliative Care Program provides clinical care for adult patients across inpatient, acute rehabilitation and ambulatory settings. The program has made significant advances to become a creative, substantive program that is deeply engaged in its community while pursuing excellence on several fronts. These advances include the Palliative Interprofessional Collaborative for Action Research, which aims to address disparities in access to palliative care; 3-Act Model, a narrative approach to the goals-of-care conversation, consisting of the patient’s story, medical opinion, and shared decisions; and Thrive by Design, which addresses staff wellness at the system, team and personal levels.

Center for Hospice Care, Mishawaka, Ind.

Center for Hospice Care delivers hospice care, palliative care, home health, grief counseling and other services across nine counties in northern Indiana. With support from its Hospice Foundation, CHC plays a vital role in the region with its educational partnerships with the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University. In addition, Global Partners in Care, its international palliative care program, collaborates with more than 100 hospice and palliative care programs worldwide to enable U.S. partners to engage with sister organizations in underserved, low-resources settings. Another key strength is CHC’s structured setting for those diagnosed with dementia and in need of health, social and support services during the day.

Prospero Health, Boston

Prospero Health focuses on home-based medical care to elderly, frail, and seriously ill patients through value-based care contracting arrangements. In 2022, Prospero provided care to more than 22,000 patients in 26 states, ultimately allowing significantly more patients to live out their days at home than the national average. The organization tracks several clinical quality metrics as well as patient admissions, hospice initiation rates and hospice median length of stay. Prospero’s clinical supervision for social work at the patient level and its partnerships with other agencies and social services have created a successful integration model. In 2023, Prospero joined Landmark Health as part of Optum Health.

Funders/Sponsors

Major sponsors of the 2023 Circle of Life Award are the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Health Association, and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and National Hospice Foundation. The awards are cosponsored by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, the Center to Advance Palliative Care, the Hospice & Palliative Nurses Association/the Hospice & Palliative Credentialing Center/the Hospice & Palliative Nurses Foundation, and the National Association of Social Workers. The Circle of Life Awards are administered by the AHA’s Health Research & Educational Trust.
 

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Contact:        Colin Milligan, cmilligan@aha.org

                      Ben Teicher, bteicher@aha.org

About the American Hospital Association (AHA)
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is a not-for-profit association of health care provider organizations and individuals that are committed to the health improvement of their communities. The AHA advocates on behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners – including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers – and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups. Founded in 1898, the AHA provides insight and education for health care leaders and is a source of information on health care issues and trends. For more information, visit the AHA website at www.aha.org.