Welcome to our first edition of the Community Trumpet. We are excited to extend this clinical offering on a quarterly basis to our customers, as well as potential customers in the space of Hospice and Palliative Care.

We, at Enclara, are excited to tell you about our new offerings for service:

LTC Claims Management: we have developed a robust institutional pharmacy communication and claims monitoring program that will assist with proper billing requirements, through CMS, to ensure medication expense is being covered by the correct entity of service, either LTC or the hospice themselves.

The Enclara logo is the elephant, which is unique in the animal world for its response to death.  During their lifetime, elephants form close family and community bonds and when these bonds are broken by death, they respond in a very human way through visible grief and mourning for the loss of one of their own. They bury their dead and encircle the grieving as one compassionate community and, although they need to move on for survival, they will often return to the burial site, as if to never forget.

This newsletter serves as a sounding board for hospice and palliative care news; with clinical and pharmacy information for those who share our community and passion for quality end of life care.

As our population ages and the baby boomers reach the end of life corridor, it is anticipated that the current 25% of deaths that occur in nursing homes today, will reach 40% by the year 2040.  Although the percentage of nursing facility residents who elect the hospice benefit is still relatively small, less than 6%, the potential is bound to expand as more of the public become educated buyers of end of life care.

Hospice nurses are charged daily with educating their colleagues about the unique care hospice provides, throughout all sites of care. Long term care is no exception.  The Enclara MAPs – Management Algorithm Pharmacopeia, provides a reference tool for that education. The handbook is an experienced and evidence-based resource with the aim of guiding decisions and criteria regarding diagnosis, management and treatment for end of life care. The format and clinical content compliment the nursing process, which is goal-oriented and based on a systematic method of care which requires critical thinking.  The A.D.P.I.E.

Welcome to our very first Newsletter!  At less than 5 years young, I must say it is a pleasure to work with such a great team and The Community Trumpet is a reflection of that – as this production was the idea of some members of our team, with contributions from many, founded in the passion of what we do.  I applaud them. 

We want the Community Trumpet to be a place of sharing of hospice and palliative care information with exciting clinical and operational news. This first issue is dedicated in part to hospice care for patients in institutional settings.