The PATHWAYS Hospital Project.

Abstract

In 1995, the Hospital Ethics Committee Consortium organized by Midwest Bioethics Center created the PATHWAYS to Patient-Centered Palliative Care: A Community Approach--a guideline document, or "how to" manual for hospitals that want to improve care of the seriously ill and dying. Following the publication and wide dissemination of this manual, the Center began to implement strategies to produce positive change in the way hospitals respond to dying persons and their families. Spurred by the same desire to alter hospital culture through improved care of the dying, eleven hospitals collaborated with the Center to form the PATHWAYS Hospital Project.