Technology Makes Advance Care Planning Easier at UMass Memorial
WORCESTER, MA (PRWEB) April 18, 2015 -- National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) is a national initiative to encourage adults of all ages to plan ahead of a potential health crisis. Making decisions ahead of time and putting wishes in writing brings peace of mind to families. NHDD encourages patients, family members and loved ones and providers to have these conversations as early as possible and engage in advance care planning.
UMass Memorial Health Care and Lumināt co-developed an innovative approach to advance care planning, a cloud-based tool to help individuals think about their values and medical wishes while integrating this information into UMass Memorial’s electronic health record (EHR) so providers have access when it is needed most. The tool is used by patients, families, providers, employees and medical students at UMass Memorial.
This spring, UMass Memorial Medical Center is launching a wellness initiative to encourage advance care planning with its employees and providers. “One goal of the wellness initiative is to build awareness that advance care planning is appropriate for all adults. We are working to change the stigma that advance care planning is only appropriate for those individuals near end of life,” Jennifer Reidy, MD, MS, Co-Chief, Division of Palliative Medicine.
UMass Memorial and Lumināt incorporated several enhancements to the advance care planning tool in recent months. The cloud-based tool uses patients’ preferences and medical wishes and populates state-specific documents such as the Massachusetts Healthcare Proxy to ensure legal documents are in place and executed. The tool also populates MOLST or Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment forms to create medical orders and support the community. EHR integration allows patients to reach the Lumināt tool through UMass Memorial’s patient portal and integrates advance care planning documents so providers and care teams have access at the point of care.
Looking to the future, UMass Memorial and Lumināt continue to innovate in this “living laboratory,” helping to create a better patient and family experience and supporting UMass Memorial’s population health strategy. “UMass Memorial has been great in its collaboration with Lumināt and we continue to make strong progress. Together we are making advance care planning easier with the use of the Lumināt technology to enable and support these critical conversations,” Tomás Valdivia, MD, MS, chief executive officer of Lumināt.
About UMass Memorial Health Care
UMass Memorial Health Care is the largest not-for-profit health care system in Central Massachusetts with more than 12,000 employees and 1,600 physicians, many of whom are members of UMass Memorial Medical Group. Our member hospitals and entities include Clinton Hospital, HealthAlliance Hospital, Marlborough Hospital, UMass Memorial Medical Center and Community Healthlink, our behavioral health agency. With our teaching and research partner, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, our extensive primary care network and our cancer, diabetes, heart and vascular, orthopedic and surgery programs, UMass Memorial delivers safe, high-quality and compassionate care.
Call 855-UMASS-MD (855-862-7763) for all your health care needs. Visit umassmemorialhealthcare.org.
About Lumināt
Lumināt (pronounced loo-mi-nate) is a software company that helps individuals consider, articulate and preserve their end-of-life wishes. Lumināt’s essential, turn key tool facilitates a necessary, though often very difficult conversation through an easy-to-use, customized and interactive platform. Lumināt’s cloud-based technology gives users and family members peace of mind knowing an individual’s complete wishes, from medical care to spiritual and financial requests, are documented and can be easily retrieved during critical moments. Visit http://www.lumināt.com for more information.
Kristin Austrum, Luminat, http://www.lumināt.com, +1 (612) 382-9107, [email protected]
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