NHPCO NewsLine Summer 2017 - 8

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volunteer-driven movements of
the 20th Century.

boundaries and the existence
they are comfortable with.

Then, the hospice demonstration
project began in 1979 at 25 sites
across the country. Legislation for
the Hospice Medicare Benefit
passed in 1982. And in the 35
years since, we have cared for
tens of millions of patients and
their families. The history of our
field is a story of innovation.

One day, the fish are gone and
the coconuts dry up. Against her
father's wishes and despite her
fears, Moana ventures out beyond
the safety of her island reef to
save her nation.

Moana...Lessons for Us
In a recent post on the NHPCO
blog page, I wrote about Moana -
the heroine of one of Disney's
most recent animated films (read
"Venturing Beyond the Reef" on
NHPCO's blog). To summarize,
Moana lives on an ocean-going
Polynesian island that needed to
evolve, expand and meet the rest
of the world.
At first blush, it does not seem to
have any relevance to hospice. Yet
as I was watching the movie a
second time with my six-year-old
daughter and eight-year-old son,
while simultaneously thinking
about my new job (multi-tasking
is a part of life for a CEO/Dad),
the clear parallels came into view.
This island-nation settled into a
life full of abundant sunshine,
unlimited coconuts, and plenty of
fish. Once a nation of brave
sea-farers, the community had
come to fear the ocean and the
risks it holds, preferring instead
the safety and security of their
island, afraid to reach beyond its

8

Like the people of Moana's island,
we have grown accustomed to
what the "hospice island" has
given us, comfortable with the
model and perhaps reluctant to
venture beyond the hospice reef
- that could be thought of as the
Medicare Hospice Benefit.
The Medicare Hospice Benefit is
not a bad thing - it is an amazing
thing that we will fight to protect
- but we must not let it keep us
from the innovation that we must
now embrace.
We all know that the health care
world is changing, as it always
has, and we need to evolve.

Hospice IS Innovation
On the 50th Anniversary of Dame
Cicely Saunders' founding of St.
Christopher's Hospice, and in the
35th year of the Medicare Hospice
Benefit, we must recognize how far
we have come and how courageous
and brave we have been.
Innovation such as expanding
our reach into community-based
palliative care services, for
example, must become integral to
our work as providers.

NHPCO NewsLine | Summer 2017

Many providers across the
country are already offering
various levels of communitybased palliative care, and that is
wonderful, we can learn from
your experience. There are
providers focused on delivering
the highest quality hospice care
- and that is your specific
mission right now. When you are
ready to evolve, NHPCO will be
there to help and support you. We
are committed to meeting you
where you are.
I want to be clear about the fact
that innovation is not about
recreating the wheel. We have the
tools we need - that bottled
passion and compassion and 35+
years of experience meeting the
needs of patients and families.
We need to tap into the fuel we
used to BUILD the hospice
demonstration to EVOLVE hospice
beyond where it is today.
If we do this right, we will ensure
that hospice will not be an island,
but will instead be a much larger
and more integrated part of the
world. In fact, our future rests
upon this notion. Most
importantly, the health care
needs of our patients and families
depend on it.

Moving Toward
Innovation
What would Dame Cicely
Saunders do today? If Dame
Cicely were alive and working
today, she would be the first one
http://nhpco.blogspot.com/2017/04/venturing-beyond-reef.html
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NHPCO NewsLine Summer 2017
