Episode Details

How can hospice and palliative care become more person-centered while also becoming more reliable?

In Part One of this Anatomy of Leadership conversation, host Chris Comeaux sits down with Kelly McCutcheon Adams, Senior Director at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), and Margherita Labson, President and CEO of McLabson Consultation & Education Services, to explore the groundbreaking 4 M's Framework and its growing impact on hospice and palliative care. 

Originally developed through the Age-Friendly Health Systems Initiative, the 4 M's—What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility—provide a practical, evidence-based framework for helping healthcare teams consistently deliver individualized care that aligns with each patient's goals while improving reliability across the care continuum. 

During this conversation, you'll discover:

• Why the 4 M's are a framework—not another quality measure
• How "What Matters" transforms goal-concordant hospice care
• Why reliability and individualized care are not mutually exclusive
• How medication decisions should be guided by patient goals—not habits
• What hospice leaders can learn from the science of quality improvement

Whether you're a hospice executive, palliative care clinician, healthcare leader, or quality improvement professional, this episode offers practical insights for building care systems that are both compassionate and consistently excellent. 

Don't miss Part Two, where we continue the discussion by exploring the remaining 4Ms and practical strategies for implementing this framework within hospice organizations.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction
00:22 Meet Kelly McCutcheon Adams & Margherita Labson
04:14 What is the 4Ms Framework?
06:58 How IHI is Bringing the 4Ms to Hospice Care
09:43 The Mission of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
11:46 Why the 4Ms Work Across Every Care Setting
15:17 Framework vs. Traditional Quality Measures
17:24 What "What Matters" Really Means in Hospice
21:08 Reliable Systems for Individualized Care
26:57 Medication Decisions Guided by Patient Goals
32:12 Hospice, Opioids, and Changing the Conversation
34:37 Coming Up in Part Two

🎙️ Learn more about TCNtalks /Anatomy of Leadership and by subscribing and following Teleios Collaborative Network (www.teleioscn.org) for more conversations on leadership, hospice, healthcare innovation, and purpose-driven organizations.

Teleios Collaborative Network   /   https://www.teleioscn.org/tcntalkspodcast