Palliative Care

Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illness or injury. This type of care is focused on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain and stress of a serious illness – whatever the diagnosis. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. Palliative care is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and can be provided together with curative treatment.

Pain Management and Symptom Relief

Together with our patient’s other doctors and caregivers, our team works to provide relief for pain and other symptoms such as nausea, shortness of breath, anxiety, depression, insomnia and cough.

Enhanced Emotional and Spiritual Support

We understand the challenges and stress to patients and their family members when faced with a serious illness. Our team provides assistance and counseling to everyone involved in order to reduce stress and anxiety.

Coordination of Care

Our team conducts a thorough evaluation of our patient’s needs and communicates with the patient’s other doctors to address the medication and therapeutic interventions required to improve the patient’s experience.

Patient Advocacy

We realize that a serious illness can overwhelm patients and their families. After patient and family evaluation, our team will communicate with the primary medical team to coordinate the best care possible. We will also help patients and families understand their care and treatment options so that they can make informed decisions based on their individual values and goals.

End-of-Life Issues

Should this time arrive during our care, we are here to provide assistance that will ensure continued comfort on all levels — physical, emotional and spiritual — for our patient as well as their family.

Palliative care is provided by an interdisciplinary team of doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, case managers, respiratory therapists, dietitians, and physical, occupational and speech therapists, who work with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support.

Chaplains who are experienced in providing aggressive symptom relief and family support are also part of the palliative care team.

Based on the patient's evaluation, the primary care physician may request a palliative care consultation with a physician who is specially trained in palliative care.

We always work in conjunction with our patient’s physicians, nurses and other caregivers to ensure the best care possible.

Palliative care benefits any patient with symptoms that are difficult to control such as nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath and pain, and any patient for whom quality of life can be improved.

Examples of illnesses in patients who can benefit from palliative care include:

• End-stage heart failure
• Coronary artery disease
• COPD
• Cancer patients
• Stroke patients
• Patients with a dementing illness who continue to decline
• Any patient with frequent hospitalization due to chronic illness
• ESRD (end-stage renal disease)

Palliative care is best introduced in the early stages of illness and can be provided even at the same time as curative treatments. However, the palliative care team can become involved at any stage of an illness. You and your physician will decide when palliative care is right for you.

A patient's physician, a patient, a family member, another caregiver or healthcare professional can request a palliative care evaluation. The admitting physician/primary doctor is notified of the request for a palliative care evaluation. A physician’s order is necessary for a physician consultation.

No. Although all hospice care is palliative care, not all palliative care is hospice care. Hospice care is available for those patients with limited life expectancy, while palliative care is appropriate for any stage of a serious illness. Palliative care patients may choose to transition to a hospice program at a later date as appropriate.