NHPCO NewsLine Summer 2019 - 5

Message from Edo
As NHPCO worked to develop
and update its brand, we knew
that we could not part with the
Lotus. Representing mind,
body, and soul in numerous
religions, the Lotus also
represents the varied needs
people have and the
interdisciplinary team that
meets those needs. Dame
Cicely Saunders based her
early work on these very
concepts.
However, even as we preserve
the link to our past, we also
recognized the importance of
moving forward. We decided to
adopt the tag line "Leading
Person-Centered Care" both
because we do and because we
must continue to do. Dame
Saunders did not ask for
permission to take the world
and to make it better. We stand
on her shoulders-and that of
many others-and have been
leading person-centered care for
over five decades.
This tag line is a reminder that
we must continue to lead in
today's world of Alternative
Payment Models, Medicare
Advantage, Accountable Care
Organizations, and the like. At
the root of all these
innovations is the realization
that the status quo does not
serve people with serious

illness well (not to mention
taxpayers). We agree.
However, I am confident that
unless the hospice community
is heavily involved in providing
more care for more people,
many of these innovations will
not be person-centered and
will not be interdisciplinary.
They also won't work. Market-,
physician-, institutional-, and
academic-driven approaches
will fail unless they involve the
teams that actually provide
person- and family-centered
care.
It is not because we are smarter
or better. Indeed, we have to
admit that innovators often
have a leg up on technology and
have access to the same
professionals in the job market
that are part of our community.
The reason our model works is
that the collective intelligence
and insight of a group of
committed and person-centered
people will always yield greater
outcomes than the individual
work or opinion of a doctor,
computer, or any other person or
piece of technology. In the
words of American rapper
Chuck D, "Real people do real
things. A collective of a whole
bunch of people who do things
in their own locale, in their own
neighborhoods- the sum is
bigger than the parts, and the

parts will grow." This is true
whether you are on a team in
Los Angeles, CA or Rutland, VT, or
any place in between. Nuance,
compassion, perspective - these
are the things that often get lost in
the shuffle. When people are
wigits, or algorithms, or "risk", they
lose their humanity. Hospice and
palliative care teach us that each
person is different, and that their
needs and desires are different,
and family matters.
We must believe that, as a
movement, we can help lead
person- and family-centered care
because the country demands it.
We will do it armed with
technology, with business
intelligence, but also with
compassion, humility, and the
dedicated individuals who have
brought us to where we are as a
community. I'm proud of the work
you do and promise to work
tirelessly to assure that as health
care evolves, we are informing
- indeed, leading - that
evolution.

Edo Banach, JD,
President and CEO
NHPCO NewsLine Summer 2019

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