Designing A Better End: Transforming the Way We Look at Palliative Care

The Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs is partnership-driven, action-oriented, and dedicated to exploring contemporary issues at the intersection of mass communication and public life. Its interdisciplinary approach draws together experts from diverse fields to advance research and dialogue. The intent is to inspire our communities to think deeply, take action, develop solutions and broaden knowledge. Underlying the Center’s endeavors is to strengthen and advance the Manship School’s national and state leadership in media and politics.

LSU Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs

Exploring ways to transform the way we look at palliative and end-of-life care.

LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, Human Development Center

The Reilly Center for Media &amp; Public Affairs at LSU’s Manship School in partnership with LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans will host a panel discussion on end-of-life care with healthcare professionals, policymakers and community leaders from across Louisiana on September 12 at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans. “Designing a Better End: Transforming the Way We Look at Palliative and End-of-Life Care” aims to identify areas of improvement in the industries of palliative and hospice care, as well as other end-of-life and long-term illness services in Louisiana. Palliative care professionals and health policy advocate Torrie Fields will moderate the event. Doors will open at 5:00 PM. Street parking is available. Torrie Fields will be the Fall 2019 Reilly Center Public Policy Fellow. Torrie is the Program Manager of High Value Solutions for Blue Shield of California. She leads the development and implementation of programs and processes at Blue Shield of California that support people with serious illness and their families. In addition, Torrie is a director for the Center to Advance Palliative Care Quality Alignment Hub and is responsible for developing an accountability and measurement framework that will advance access to high-quality serious illness care across settings.Panel Contributors: Jamey Boudreaux has been the Executive Director of the Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice &amp; Palliative Care Organization since its inception in 2001. Prior to taking on the challenges of managing a two state professional organization, he was the Executive Director of the Louisiana Hospice Organization, with 6 years of direct hospice social work experience. He was also an Adjunct Professor at Tulane School of Social Work, teaching “Death, Dying &amp; Grieving” from 1998-2018. Mr. Boudreaux received his BA in Political Science from University of New Orleans (1981), his Master of Divinity from Notre Dame Seminary (1985) and his MSW from Tulane University (1993).Dr. Susan E. Nelson MD, FACP, FAAHPM is board certified in internal medicine, geriatrics and hospice and palliative medicine and currently serves as System Chair, Palliative Medicine, Ochsner Health System and Medical Director, Post-Acute Care, Ochsner Health Network. She has recently been appointed as System Chair, Bioethics Committee Ochsner Health System and Ochsner Medical Center. Her career has focused on patients with multiple chronic conditions and frailty regardless of their place of residence. She has worked with the Louisiana Department of Health on systems reform to improve care for those patients at home, assisted living, and long term care facilities. Dr. Nelson chaired the End of Life Task Force (2006) for the Louisiana Health Care Redesign Collaborative established after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to improve health care in Louisiana as a model for improvement locally, regionally and nationally. Results from that collaborative led to the statewide coalition for improved end of life care and LaPOST (Louisiana Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment. This legislation was passed in 2010 and updated in 2016. She currently chairs the LaPOST Coalition, an initiative of the Louisiana Health Care Quality Forum, and is a past member of the organization’s board. She is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine as well as an advocate for senior health. Dr. Nelson assisted in the development of the Catholic Health Association’s “End-of-Life Guides” and PEW project and document “Pathways to Convergence-examining diverse perspectives of Catholics on advance care planning, palliative care, and end of life care in the United States”. She has been working with the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops to provide education and materials on advance care planning to the priests and health care ministries. Dr. Nelson is Secretary of the Leadership Council for National POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment). She is a faculty member for Respecting Choices and is completing the Masters Program in Bioethics at Loyola University-Chicago.Dr. Emily Vincent currently serves as a medical director for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana. Dr. Vincent graduated from Louisiana State University with a zoology major and Spanish minor before completing medical school at LSU Health and Sciences Center in Shreveport. She completed her residency in internal medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. Throughout her career, Dr. Vincent first served as a hospitalist for 3 years at Roper Hospital in Charleston, South Carolina before serving 11 years at Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dr. Vincent is board certified in internal medicine with a focused practice in hospital medicine. Dr. Alexis Morvant, a native of Thibodaux, Louisiana, earned her Doctor of Medicine from LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans. Prior to this, she received a master’s degree in Ethics from Loyola Marymount University. She completed Pediatric residency at Vanderbilt University and further training at Harvard Medical School Pediatric Hospice and Palliative Care Fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Her current position is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and medical director of Pediatric Palliative Care at Children’s Hospital. She is the founder and Chair of the Gulf State Pediatric Palliative Care Consortium, which currently has over 50 members and 9 disciplines represented.