South Carolina AHEC System Partners with MUSC to Host Palliative Care Series

Lowcountry AHEC hosted the first offering of Primary Palliative Care Practices and Principles in April in conjunction with MUSC. The two-day workshop, which sold out, featured national and international speakers, Constance Dahlin, ANP-BC, ACHPN, FPCN, FAAN and Patrick J. Coyne, MSN, ACHRN, ACNS-BC, FAAN, FPCN.  The program focuses on assisting rural facilities with the creation of palliative care teams. Along with the didactic portion of the course, there is a clinical portion in which the instructors will visit the site to provide further training and assistance. Beaufort Memorial Hospital will be the first hospital to be provided this additional training.

One of the participants, Dr. Kurt Gambla from Beaufort Memorial Hospital (BMH) shared his thoughts and experiences from the two-day program.  Prior to the program, BMH was in the initial planning stages of the creation of their palliative care team. “We had the general concept prior to now,” remarks Dr. Gambla, “but we needed to consider the infrastructure more and to structure our plan to prepare for growth.”  The leadership is mission-driven knowing that having a palliative care team is the “right thing to do” even though it may not provide a significant amount of revenue.  With the support of leadership, Dr. Gambla and his colleagues are optimistic to implement their palliative care team by the beginning of July. 

“The on-going relationship with Patrick Coyne will be the most valuable relationship that we need.” On April 13, the CEO of BMH and others from the BMH met with Patrick Coyne and Constance Dahlin to discuss the implementation of their palliative care team.  They anticipate an expansion of roles in the future; however, at this time the palliative care team is comprised of Kurt Gambla, DO, Irina Borissova, MD, Amy Wagner, ANP-BC, Ronda O’Connell, ANP-BC, Jennifer Massey, LMSW ACHO, and Chaplain Ed Morgan. 

“I think it’s been an incredible learning experience which has helped us identify the gaps in our plan that we need to fill to make our team successful” says Dr. Gambla.

Are you interested in attending a palliative care workshop and having your team trained? There are still two more opportunities to attend:

• June 26-27 at Mid-Carolina AHEC in Lancaster
• September 18-19 at Upstate AHEC in Greenville

Click here to see credit details, find out more and to register.