About Us

 

The Virginia POLST Collaborative is a statewide partnership of regional and statewide organizations and individuals charged with providing guidance about implementing POLST programs in healthcare facilities across Virginia and promoting educational opportunities for POLST facilitators. POLST is a portable medical order and is modeled after NATIONAL POLST.

 

The collaborative has an Executive Committee that varies and has been made up of representatives from the various existing POLST pilots across Virginia as well as representatives from:

• Medical Society of Virginia

• Virginia Department of Health (OEMS)

• Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association

• Virginia State Bar

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History

 

In 2006, the Palliative Care Partnership of the Roanoke Valley (PCPRV) began planning, designing and implementing a POST Pilot Project for Virginia.

The PCPRV received funding through a Geriatric Training and Education grant to assist 10 Pilot Project Stakeholder (PPS) groups in Virginia to design and implement POST pilot projects in their communities. This grant is from the General Assembly of Virginia and administered by the Virginia Center on Aging at Virginia Commonwealth University.

In June of 2011, Sentara Leigh Hospital in Norfolk was the second pilot site for POST in Virginia and incorporated two adjacent Skilled Nursing Facilities, EMS in Norfolk and Virginia Beach as well as private medical transport into their pilot.

Since then, POST continues to gains acceptance in Virginia.  The map below represents where either a major hospital system or at least one facility has implemented POST.  If a county is shaded pink, it does not mean that every healthcare facility in that county has adopted the POST program.