Palliative Medicine

What is Palliative Medicine?

Palliative medicine serves patients and loved ones facing the symptoms and stresses of complex and serious illnesses.

The palliative medicine team will have conversations with you and your loved ones about your health and your values, goals, and options. We will work with you to design a care plan that helps you to maximize the quality of your life.

The palliative medicine team can help you to:

Understand your options
Manage your symptoms, including pain, shortness of breath, and fatigue, as well as anxiety and depression
Address your emotional and spiritual needs
Develop care plans and advance directives that respect your choices
Support your family and friends
Coordinate your care with other providers and services in the hospital and in the community

Who can benefit from palliative medicine services?

Palliative medicine services can help patients of all ages with complex serious, chronic, or terminal illnesses, including:

Cancer
Heart disease
Kidney disease
Lung disease
Neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other dementias

These services can benefit patients who are experiencing repeated emergency department visits or hospital admissions related to their health conditions.

Palliative medicine services can also support a patient’s loved ones as they navigate a patient’s illnesses.

When do palliative medicine services help?

Palliative medicine services offer a continuum of care and can benefit patients at any stage of a serious illness. Ideally, they are introduced soon after a diagnosis. They can be provided with or without treatments meant to improve health. Palliative medicine services can include hospice care, which supports patients in the last months of life when curative and restorative treatments are no longer appropriate or no longer desired.

Who provides palliative medicine services?

At UHS Hospitals, the inpatient palliative medicine team includes physicians, nurse practitioners, and social workers. The team works closely with other disciplines, including nursing, pharmacy, care management, and spiritual care, to care for patients and their loved ones.

Depending on an individual’s plan of care, the inpatient palliative medicine team may place a referral to an outpatient palliative care program or a hospice program.

Most insurance plans, including Medicaid and Medicare, cover palliative medicine services.