Also Known As:
Interdisciplinary Group, Interdisciplinary Team, IDT meeting, team meeting
Type:
Federally required hospice team coordination meeting
Primary Purpose:
To review every patient’s plan of care every 14 days, share observations across roles, and adjust care to match the patient’s current needs.
When It Applies:
Every 14 days for every patient on hospice service, plus ad-hoc meetings during significant clinical changes.
Who Is Involved:
Hospice physician, RN case managers, aides, social workers, chaplains, bereavement coordinators, and any specialists involved.
Where It Occurs:
At the hospice office or via secure video, required to include all relevant team members.
Duration:
Roughly 5–15 minutes per patient discussed, depending on complexity.
Coverage:
Required and embedded in the Medicare Hospice Benefit.
Key Focus:
Cross-role observations, medication adjustments, family-need updates, escalations to continuous care or GIP, and changes to visit frequency.
Common Misunderstanding:
The IDG is not a billing meeting or paperwork exercise. It is the actual mechanism by which hospice care stays coordinated, and the difference between a strong hospice and a weak one is often visible inside this meeting.
What Happens in an IDG Meeting
Every 14 days, the full hospice team meets to walk through each patient’s care plan. The discussion typically covers:
- What the nurse has observed at recent visits
- What the aide has noticed during personal care
- What the social worker is seeing in family dynamics
- What the chaplain has heard from the patient or spouse
- Medication adjustments and as-needed orders
- Visit frequency, should it go up?
- Any concerns about eligibility, decline, or active dying
Why the IDG Matters to Families
The IDG is the reason your loved one’s nurse, aide, and chaplain are talking about the same things in the same week. Without the IDG, a hospice would be a collection of separate workers visiting the same patient. With a strong IDG, every observation flows back into the plan of care, and every team member knows the same facts before their next visit.
At Lifted, the IDG is treated as one of the most important hours of the week. The medical director attends. Cases are discussed in detail. Care is genuinely adjusted, not just documented.
Family Input Into the IDG
Families don’t attend the IDG meeting itself, but their voices belong in it. If you want a different visit time, a new chaplain, fewer medications, or more aide hours, tell your nurse before the next IDG and the team will discuss it.
Contact our team or speak with your RN case manager at any visit.