About LQI | Life Quality Institute

What is palliative care?

Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and their families with advanced illness or life-threatening injury. Palliative care prevents and relieves suffering through early identification, assessment, and expert treatment of pain and other challenges: physical, psycho-social, and spiritual.

Palliative care includes:

The affirmation of life and regard for dying as a normal process
The intent to neither hasten nor postpone death
Care throughout the continuum of illness in conjunction with curative therapies
Availability of interventions early in the course of illness to assist with symptom management or advance care planning
The use of an interdisciplinary team approach to address the comprehensive needs of patients and families.

This approach includes:
- assessment and management of patient’s pain and other distressing symptoms
- integration of the psychological and spiritual aspects of patientand family care
- offering asupport system to help patients live as fully as possible
- offering a support system to help the family cope during the patient’s illness and in their bereavement

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Providing Palliative Care Education in Colorado Since 2003

Our mission is simple … By educating healthcare professionals and the public, Life Quality Institute advances the understanding and quality of palliative care.

Quality palliative care – involving a knowledgeable, supportive care team – improves the quality of life for patients with advanced illness or life-threatening injury. These patients control their care by considering aspects like quality of life, treatment options, and level of suffering (physical, psychosocial, and spiritual).

We view the palliative care team members as equal partners, with the patient guiding the care choices. Members of the interdisciplinary care team might include physicians, nurses, hospital discharge planners, or other healthcare workers. Team members also may include a chaplain, minister, social worker, volunteers, and home healthcare or hospice providers as well as the patient and family members, friends, and neighbors.

The Key to Providing Quality Care is Education

As a member of a palliative care team, you apply your expertise to guide patients and their families while supporting their wishes, needs, and decisions. Yet the care team needs education, information, resources, and support.

Our presentations, programs, and conferences are dedicated to:

Fostering higher patient satisfaction through greater dignity, control, and quality of life
Providing each member of the care team with the information and tools necessary to
provide higher quality of care
Helping the care team focus on the patient and his or her wishes, and not the disease,
treatment, or symptoms
Teaching palliative care team members how to leverage scarce resources including finances,
caregivers, and volunteers

Our Roots

Life Quality Institute was created in 2003 when The Denver Hospice received a federal grant to develop a palliative care educational institute. In collaboration with academic and professional organizations, we have developed and delivered a wide variety of palliative care educational programs. In 2008, Life Quality Institute separated from The Denver Hospice and established itself as a 501(c)3.

Since our inception, we have been faithful to our mission. Through our presentations, programs, and conferences, Life Quality Institute has provided more than 130,000 hours of palliative care education to thousands of healthcare professionals, students, and community members throughout Colorado.

Awards

Organization and Award	Year
Western Group on Education Affairs Annual Conference: Medical Innovation Award	2005
Denver Business Journal Finalist, 2006 Champions in Health Care	2006
Kaiser Permanente-Colorado CARE Project of the Year Palliative Care: Building A New Departmet	2006
American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellow	2006
Kaiser Permanente-Colorado, Andrew M. Wiesenthal Quality Award Palliative Care Department	2006
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Department of Medicine Teaching Award	2007
Denver Medical Society Community Education Award	2007
Older Women's League WOW Award: Jane W. Barton, MTS, MASM	2007
Retirement Connection Compassionate Caring Award: Jane W. Barton, MTS, MASM	2009
5280 Magazine, Top Doctors, Hospice and Palliative Medicine: Dan Johnson, M.D., FAAHPM	2008,2009 & 2010
University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center Clinical Faculty Outstanding Housestaff Teaching Award	2010
University of Colorado School of Medicine 2010 Teaching Excellence Award for the Life Cycle Block	2010