The goal of palliative care is to prevent and relieve suffering and to support the best quality of life for patients and their families, regardless of the stage of the disease or the need for other therapies.

“Palliative care” refers to the active total care of patients whose disease and/or symptoms may not respond to curative treatment. Palliative Care affirms life by supporting the patient and family’s goals for the future, including their hopes for cure or life-prolongation, as well as their hopes for peace and dignity throughout the course of illness, the dying process and death.

 

Palliative care is appropriate for all patients from the time of diagnosis with a life-threatening or debilitating condition, regardless of the patient’s age.

 

Palliative care is provided by an interdisciplinary team and aims to:

(1) control pain and other physical symptoms;

(2) alleviate psychological, social, and spiritual suffering;

(3) achieve the best possible quality of life for patients

(4) support patients’ families as they accompany them through severe illness and/or the process of dying.

 

Increasing evidence suggests that palliative care improves both the quality and the cost-effectiveness of health care provided to patients at the end of life. The provision of palliative care is recognized as a standard required by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, and is used as a criterion for rankings of excellence by U.S. News and World Report.