Measures That Matter: How Better Metrics Can Transform End-of-Life Care | Part One

Written by Chris Comeaux | 2/4/26 2:43 PM

Top News Stories of the Month, January 2026
At the end of life, quality matters—but too often, the metrics used in Hospice and Palliative Care fail to reflect the care patients and families actually experience.

In Episode One of Measures That Matter: How Better Metrics Can Transform End-of-Life Care, TCNtalks / Anatomy of Leadership explores why fewer, clearer quality measures are essential for reducing variability, improving patient outcomes, and supporting value-based care at the end of life.

This episode introduces the Measures That Matter initiative through the lens of experience, data, and leadership responsibility. Bob Tavares explains how decades of healthcare analytics revealed a fundamental problem in Hospice quality measurement: an abundance of metrics that fail to differentiate performance. Many current measures cluster nearly all providers at the top, making it difficult for patients, payers, and value-based organizations to identify true centers of excellence or address variability that puts patients at risk.

From the provider and network perspective, Robin Heffernan and Mindy Stewart-Coffee highlight the real-world consequences of that variability. Across thousands of Hospice and Palliative Care providers nationwide, quality is inconsistent—even within the same organization across different markets. Staffing changes, lack of collaboration with risk-bearing entities, and late referrals all contribute to uneven patient and family experiences, reinforcing the need for fewer, clearer, and more actionable measures.

Episode One ultimately reframes measurement as a leadership issue—not a compliance exercise. Great Hospice and Palliative Care, the panel argues, doesn’t happen by accident. It is intentionally designed, supported by the right systems and processes, and continuously measured to reduce variability and honor patient goals. This opening episode sets the stage for a deeper exploration of the specific metrics that matter most—and how leaders can use them responsibly to improve care where it matters most.

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Episode Transcript

Guest

Bob Tavares

VP & General Manager, HealthPivots

Biography

www.healthpivots.com

Hospice Measures That Matter

Robin Heffernan

PhD, Co-Founder and CEO, Empassion

Biography

Mindy Stewart-Coffee

National Vice President, Palliative Care
at Optum Home & Community

Biography

Co-Host