Palliative Care Program

Palliative care focuses on improving quality of life when patients are ill from serious diseases. The Palliative Care Program offers patients and their families a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to care that focuses on improving symptoms and clarifying goals of care whether one’s disease is chronic and progressive, life threatening, or may be curable.

Palliative care may be helpful for patients with diseases such as cancer, congestive heart failure, emphysema, kidney disease, and neurological diseases including Parkinson’s Disease and dementia. The Palliative Care Program can work with your primary or specialist physicians to treat symptoms associated with these diseases including pain, shortness of breath, nausea, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, and loss of appetite. Patients are evaluated by a team of palliative care specialists that include physicians, advanced practice nurses, and social workers. The palliative care team also assists patients with evaluating the benefits and burdens of different treatment options, developing goals of care, clarifying prognosis, psychological support, as well as advance care planning.