The Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC) announced on Wednesday the inaugural honor roll of the first John A. Hartford Foundation Tipping Point Challenge, and Sarasota Memorial Hospital was among 95 organizations to receive national recognition for developing innovative programs and completing specialized training that is improving care for people living with a serious illness. SMH’s supportive care services team includes board-certified palliative medicine doctors, specialty-trained nurses and others who provide patients with serious or prolonged illness an extra layer of support during their hospital stay. They collaborate with each patient’s team of healthcare providers—including primary care physicians and specialists such as oncologists, surgeons and cardiologists—to ensure customized care and treatment that is centered around what is important to the patient and his or her loved ones.

A national innovation and quality improvement challenge sponsored by CAPC and the Hartford foundation, the Tipping Point challenge is the cornerstone of a five-year campaign aimed at creating a tipping point in the improvement of care delivered to millions of Americans living with a serious illness. More than 1,500 organizations participated; the goal of the challenge was  to help health care organizations expand the ability to effectively care for seriously ill patients by enhancing skills among clinicians across a range of medical specialties. These include communication, pain management, and symptom management skills directed at the complex needs of people living with serious illness.