True Ryndes, NP, MPH

In 2007, True Ryndes’ pioneering accomplishments within the North American hospice movement resulted in his receiving the prestigious Founders Award from the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Though his care for the dying in the early 70’s preceded the development of the hospice movement in North America, in 1977 he co-founded the first hospice in Minnesota, Hospice St. Paul. Shortly thereafter he was asked to serve as consultant to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations on developing national accreditation standards for hospice care.

Since the mid-80’s, he has been a senior and executive officer in pioneer hospice programs in California: San Diego Hospice and Home Hospice of Sonoma County. In 1985 he served as the first director of clinical services for San Diego Hospice and was a principal in the design of the San Diego Hospice campus. In 1989, he founded the San Diego Hospice Center for Palliative Studies (CPS) through a major grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation. In 1994, as CEO of Home Hospice of Sonoma County, he initiated one of the country’s first non-hospice palliative home health programs. At the same time he served on the National Advisory Committee for the Center to Advance Palliative Care and the initial Steering Committee of the National Consensus Project on Quality Palliative Care.

Mr. Ryndes has played a leadership role in the development of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s (NHPCO) Standards of Practice for Hospice Programs as well as Medical Guidelines for Determining Prognosis in Selected Non-Cancer Diseases. He was lead author of The NHPCO Pathway for Patient and Family Facing Terminal Illness, loaned executive to NHPCO on accreditation practices, co-director of the NHWG/NHPCO Outcomes Forum and co-director of the landmark Hastings Center Special Report, Access to Hospice Care. You will find him published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the Hospitalist, Healthcare Forum, and Generations among others, as well as the recent edition of the Oxford University Press Textbook for Palliative Medicine.

Prior to his retirement, Mr. Ryndes was founding director of the VNA and Hospice Foundation as well as the founding president and CEO of the National Hospice Work Group (NHWG), a coalition of innovative hospice leaders offering opinion leadership to the end-of-life care community. Concurrently, he served San Diego Hospice as Vice President for Public Policy and Advocacy and was a member of Boards of Directors of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the National Hospice Foundation. He currently serves on the National Hospice Foundation’s Board of Governors.