Nationally recognized program promotes compassionate care and teamwork.

Bluegrass Care Navigators is joining an evidenced-based program for its employees to openly and honestly discuss the most challenging emotional and social issues they face in caring for patients and families. The Schwartz Rounds® program has been found to enhance compassionate care, improve teamwork and reduce caregiver stress.

Schwartz Rounds are common in hospital settings, but Bluegrass Care Navigators is the among hospice providers in the nation to join the program.

Schwartz Rounds are a program of the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare, a national nonprofit dedicated to putting compassion at the heart of healthcare through programs, education and advocacy. In contrast to traditional medical rounds, the focus of Schwartz Rounds is on the human dimension of medicine. Healthcare professionals have an opportunity to share their experiences, thoughts and feelings on thought-provoking topics drawn from actual patient cases. The goal is for healthcare professionals to make personal connections with patients and colleagues because they have greater insight into their own responses and feelings.

“Our team is called to exhibit a tremendous capacity for compassion and respect as we care for patients with chronic illness or at the end of life,” said Lindsay Kampfer, Counseling Resource Officer for Bluegrass Care Navigators. “We spend much of our practice supporting patients and families through their emotional and spiritual needs. Schwartz Rounds will give our team an intentional, clinically-driven program to make space for their own emotions and experiences.”

Studies have shown that 90% of caregivers who attended multiple Schwartz Rounds reported better communication with their co-workers, and 86% reported feeling more compassionate toward patients and families.

Schwartz Rounds were first piloted at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston in 1997. Since then, the program has grown rapidly as the need has increased. Today, more than 500 sites across the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand are Schwartz Center members and conduct the Rounds program, with another 200+ sites running the program through a partnership in the U.K. and Ireland.

About the Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare

The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare envisions a world where all who seek and provide healthcare experience compassion.

We have hundreds of members in the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand, including hospitals, long-term care facilities and other healthcare organizations, and more than 200 healthcare organizations conducting our programs in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Through them, we have positively impacted hundreds of thousands of caregivers and patients across nearly every healthcare setting with our programs and resources.

The Schwartz Center’s mission to put compassion at the heart of healthcare holds true no matter how extraordinary or difficult the circumstances. Since our founding in 1995, healthcare organizations rely on our programs, education and resources to support clinician well-being and mental health, enhance the quality of care, enable better outcomes, and create a more positive experience for all members of the care team, patients and their families.



For more information, visit www.theschwartzcenter.org.

To learn more about Bluegrass Care Navigators, call 855.492.0812 or visit https://www.bgcarenav.org.