Current Events

Mar
13
Fri
MCO Illinois Association of Managed Health Plans (IAMHP) Meeting @ Seasons Hospice
Mar 13 @ 12:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Mar
30
Mon
JOLIET AREA COMMUNITY HOSPICE OPEN House LEGISLASTIVE @ Joliet Area Community Hospice
Mar 30 @ 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Apr
29
Wed
IL HPCO ADVOCACY DAY @ SPRINGFIELD, IL
Apr 29 @ 10:30 am – 4:00 pm

IL-HPCO Partners with POLST Illinois
to Promote Awareness, Education

The Illinois Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (IL-HPCO) is partnering with POLST Illinois, combining efforts to strengthen awareness, education and advocacy related to advance care planning and the understanding and implementation of the Practitioner Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) throughout the state.

“We are proud to be able to announce this partnership during November, National Hospice and Palliative Care Month,” said Sarah Bealles, Chair, IL-HPCO Board of Director and President & CEO of JourneyCare, an Illinois-based hospice and palliative care agency. “The national theme this year is ‘Know Your Options.’ Together, IL-HPCO and POLST Illinois will be able to have a greater voice in building awareness and enhancing education, training and advocacy about advance care planning statewide.”

A POLST form is a signed medical order that travels with the patient to ensure that a patient’s treatment preferences are honored across settings of care. It can help prevent unwanted or medially ineffective treatment, reduce patient and family suffering and help ensure a patient’s wishes are honored.

POLST is designed for people with a chronic, progressive disease or a serious medical condition and is an important part of advance care planning. It replaces the Do Not Resuscitate Practitioner Order (DNR).

Illinois POLST now becomes part of IL-HPCO, the only organization representing hospice and palliative care in the state of Illinois. IL-HPCO and POLST Illinois share a common goal of promoting quality care through informed end-of-life conversations and shared decision making, and ensuring that those with serious illness receive the treatments they want and don’t receive the treatments they don’t want.