Meet the Honorees:
The Regence Foundation is proud to introduce the 2010 Sojourns Award honorees.
- James S. shaw, M.D. Spokane, Washington
- Mimi Pattison, M.D. Tacoma, Washington
- Tanya Lugliani Stewart, M.D. Vancouver, Washington
- Sharon M. Weinstein, M.D. Salt Lake City, Utah
- Idaho End-of-Life Coalition, Boise, Idaho
We created the Sojourns Award to recognize leaders in the field of palliative and end-of-life care, to share their innovations with the broader community and to invest in their future work. Honorees are organizations and individuals whose contributions and passion for change are transforming people’s lives, every day.
The Sojourns Award includes a $50,000 grant from The Regence Foundation to support continued leadership and advancements in palliative care.
James S. Shaw, M.D.
Director of Ethics and Medical Director
Providence Center for Faith and Healing
Spokane, Washington
From the Congo to local house calls, Dr. Shaw demonstrates his dedication to relieving the suffering of patients. He founded the palliative care program at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in 2007, and has worked to improve the quality of hospice care in the community. His influence spreads far beyond Spokane, however, as he is the driving force behind the creation of an integrated palliative care service across a network of Catholic hospitals and medical facilities from Alaska to California.
He is a "fierce patient advocate," say colleagues who supported his nomination for the Sojourns Award, who daily demonstrates a deep understanding of and a caring passion for people. As one put it, "He helps primary physicians, medical staff and loved ones downshift from aggressive medical combat to a palliative modality."
He is also a founding member of the National Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Paradigm Initiative Task Force; a founding member of the Spokane End-of-Life Coalition; board chair of the Supportive Care Coalition; and a board member for Hospice of Spokane.
Dr. Shaw designated the award’s $50,000 grant to Providence Center for Faith and Healing at Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children's Hospital. The Center coordinates palliative care services for Providence in the Spokane community.
Mimi Pattison, M.D.
Medical Director, Franciscan Hospice
and Palliative Care
and Franciscan
Palliative Care Outreach Program
Visiting Professor, Madigan Army Medical Center
Tacoma, Washington
Dr. Pattison was the first Washington physician to practice palliative medicine in the hospital, overcoming stigma and lack of understanding, paving the way for those who followed.
"She has not led from behind a desk, but by being in the exam room and personally caring for patients," said her nominator, Franciscan Health System chief operating officer, Cliff Robertson, MD. "She is a true servant leader."
Dr. Pattison originated a screening question for physicians, nurses and other providers now used nationally for palliative care referral: "Would you be surprised if the patient you are examining died in the next year?" This simple and effective question resulted in a 7-fold increase in appropriate hospice referrals through the Palliative Care Outreach program in Franciscan’s primary-medicine clinics. In 1997, she started the first community-based palliative care program in the Northwest at Franciscan Health System, which has grown to include hospital-based palliative care at Franciscan Hospital, now the largest end-of-life care provider in Washington.
In addition to being medical director for Franciscan Hospice and Palliative Care, Dr. Pattison is vice chair of the Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Commission. She was appointed to the commission in 2008 by Governor Chris Gregoire.
Dr. Pattison designated the award’s $50,000 grant to Franciscan Health System’s foundation to benefit the organization’s hospice and palliative services.
Tanya Lugliani Stewart, M.D.
Medical Director, Evercare Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Medical Director, Community Home Health & Hospice
Vancouver, Washington
With passion and talent, Dr. Stewart has shepherded "what could only be described as a quiet revolution in end-of-life care that has extended well beyond the bounds of her local organization and community," say her nominators.
Dr. Stewart serves on the Public Policy Committee of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. As part of a delegation from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, she met with federal legislators to call attention to the integral role of palliative care in health care reform strategies.
She led efforts with CareOregon to develop an outpatient palliative care program for Medicaid patients, an underserved population that faces many challenges to care—an enormous accomplishment that has the potential to contribute valuable data and case studies in an area of care where none now exist.
She integrated a novel curriculum for medical students at Oregon Health and Science University into her hospice program, developed teaching and mentoring for residents in Internal Medicine, and engages pre-med students in end-of-life education.
Dr. Stewart’s nomination was supported by three different health care systems in Portland, an indication of her effective leadership in improving palliative care statewide, as well as her growing influence nationally. She designated the award’s $50,000 grant to Adventist Health Hospice in support of its new outpatient palliative care program.
Sharon Weinstein, M.D.
Director, Pain Medicine and Palliative Care
Huntsman Cancer Institute
Professor, Univ. of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sharon M. Weinstein, M.D., is a "pioneer and visionary" in hospice and palliative medicine, according to her nominators. As a faculty scholar of the Open Society Institute's Project on Death in America, she introduced the phrase "integrated palliative care" in 1995 to express the concept of synthesizing holistic supportive care with treatment throughout the course of a disease.
In 1998, she established the Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Program at the University of Utah's Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI), and serves as its director. She also opened an affiliated program at the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System and consults at Primary Children's Medical Center.
A natural collaborator, Dr. Weinstein works with other major hospital system in her area to establish quality of care standards, impacting the care of 85 percent of all cancer patients in this region. She is committed to research that improves patient care, and her expertise is chronic pain management.
Hers was the first training program in Utah approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education in 2009, enabling HCI to sponsor its first physician fellow in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In 2009 she was named as a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
She designated the award’s $50,000 grant to the Huntsman Cancer Foundation for the Albert A. Weinstein Memorial Palliative Medicine Training Award, in memory of her father.
Idaho End-of-Life Coalition
Boise, Idaho
Called "trendsetting" by Don Schumacher, President/CEO of National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, the coalition joined two different organizations, Idaho State Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and A Better Way Coalition.
Working with allied organizations, the coalition provides knowledge, tools and advocacy to promote compassionate hospice and palliative care, and better end-of-life conditions for all. In 2009 the Coalition was recognized as a Governor's "Brightest Star" for volunteer service. The coalition brings together committed individuals from state and local agencies, medical facilities, elder-law firms, hospices, nursing homes, universities, the Idaho Commission on Aging, National Association of Social Workers/Idaho, Idaho Health Care Association, and AARP/Idaho. The coalition’s efforts have taken Idaho from a grade of D in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) "Last Acts Report on Dying in America" to receiving one of three national RWJF "Rallying Points Awards of Excellence" awards.
Its Idaho-specific advanced care planning guide has been placed in every library and senior center and is published online.
The results speak for themselves: Through education and awareness the coalition increased the use of hospice services from 17 percent of dying people in 1999 to more than 50 percent in 2009. "As a result of their effort and effectiveness, I have witnessed remarkable improvement in the number and sophistication of palliative care providers throughout Idaho in a few short years," said Kevin Clifford, MD, palliative care medical director at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center.
