Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care Launches Website

BOSTON, Nov. 7, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care (the Coalition) announced the launch of its new website. MaSeriousCare.org will be a digital "meeting place" for the more than sixty Massachusetts-based groups that are working together through the Coalition to ensure that everyone in Massachusetts receives care—at every stage of life—that honors their goals, values and preferences.

According to a recent statewide survey that the Coalition conducted and then unveiled at its May 2016 launch event, there is a stark disconnect between the beliefs and actions of Massachusetts residents when it comes to advance care planning. In fact, while 85 percent of Massachusetts residents believe that physicians and their patients should talk about end-of-life care, only 15 percent have actually had such conversations.

The new website will help to draw attention to the importance of advance care planning.

The Coalition has six distinct and measurable goals designed to help it to fulfill its ambitious mission. They are:

1. Everyone in Massachusetts, 18 or older, has designated a health care decision-maker (health care proxy).
2. Everyone in Massachusetts, 18 or older, has had a conversation (and continues to have conversations) with their proxy to communicate their goals, values and preferences for care at the end of life.
3. All Massachusetts clinicians have appropriate training to facilitate high-quality communication with patients on advance care planning and serious illness.
4. Everyone in Massachusetts facing a serious illness has had a high-quality, informed goals and values conversation with their care team.
5. All Massachusetts health care providers have systems in place to elicit and document goals, values, and preferences for patients with serious illness.
6. All Massachusetts health care providers have systems in place to share patient goals, values and preferences across care settings, to ensure they are accessible regardless of place of care.

The new website will serve as a collaboration portal for the Coalition's member organizations. Additionally, it will ultimately be a resource for clinicians as well as patients and their families and caregivers. Visitors will be directed to Coalition member assets that detail how to broach serious illness care conversations and how to pursue the proxy identification and health-care-wishes documentation processes.

Visit the Coalition's website to learn more about its mission to ensure Massachusetts residents receive care that aligns with their goals, values and preferences.

About the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care

The Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care includes a diverse set of organizations committed to ensuring that health care for everyone in the Commonwealth reflects their goals, values and preferences. Each member organization commits to tangible initiatives to help advance this collective mission. These groups include physicians, nurses, hospice workers, counselors, clergy, hospital and health plan administrators, social workers, attorneys, policymakers, researchers and other health professionals. The Coalition is funded by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and the Rx Foundation. To learn more, visit maseriouscare.org.

MEDIA CONTACT
Brenna Fitzgerald
[email protected] 
857-300-2060

SOURCE Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care

Related Links

http://maseriouscare.org