Blue Shield of California’s Torrie Fields Wins 2019 Leadership Award from the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California
SAN FRANCISCO (April 10, 2019) – Torrie Fields, MPH, senior manager of Advanced Illness and Palliative Care for Blue Shield of California, has won the 2019 Leadership Award from the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California.
Fields was honored at the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California’s 11th Annual Palliative Care Summit in San Francisco on April 9 for her leadership in developing and implementing Blue Shield’s home-based palliative care program to help improve the quality of life for individuals with serious or life-limiting illnesses, and their families. She helped develop palliative care initiatives including benefit design, case management, caregiver support, medical home development, and policy and engagement efforts.
Palliative care is patient- and family-centered care that emphasizes quality of life and seeks to ease the symptoms of serious illness. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness and can be provided along with curative treatments.
Blue Shield launched its palliative care effort in 2016 as a pilot program first in San Francisco and in Sacramento the following year. Its success spurred the program’s expansion throughout California and now, Blue Shield and its subsidiary Blue Shield of California Promise Health Plan are the only plans to offer members home-based palliative care in all 58 counties in California.
Fields is also a consultant and curriculum developer for The Center to Advance Palliative Care, The Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) and California State University’s Palliative Care Institute.
Additionally, she serves as the Co-Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care Quality Alignment Hub, a member of the Board of Directors for the Social Work Hospice Palliative Network, and a co-founder of the Blue Cross Blue Shield serious illness workgroup and the California Advanced Illness Collaborative. She also advises several community coalitions and national committees that focus on improving care for those with serious illness.
Prior to joining Blue Shield in 2015, Torrie worked as an applied health services researcher in a variety of settings, including health plans, health delivery systems, local, state, and federal health departments, and in university research laboratories.
She holds a Master’s in Public Health degree in health management and policy from the Portland State University-Oregon Health and Science University School of Public Health, a Certificate in Gerontology from Portland Community College, a Bachelor of Science degree in sociology from Portland State University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication theory from University of California, San Diego.
The Coalition for Compassionate Care of California is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting high-quality, compassionate care for everyone who is seriously ill or nearing the end of life. As an interdisciplinary partnership of thought-leaders from healthcare systems and organizations, government agencies, consumer organizations, and the general public, the Coalition for Compassionate Care of California provides advocacy, education, and resource development to ensure organizations and communities have the information, resources, and tools to expand palliative care across the continuum of care.
About Blue Shield of California
Blue Shield of California strives to create a health care system worthy of our family and friends that is sustainably affordable. We are a not for profit, independent member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association with care for four million members, 6,800 employees and more than $20 billion in annual revenue. Founded in 1939 and headquartered in San Francisco, Blue Shield of California and its affiliates provide health, dental, vision, Medicaid and Medicare health care service plans in California. The company has contributed more than $500 million to Blue Shield of California Foundation since 2002 to have an impact on California communities.
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