Palliative Care
What is Palliative care?
Palliative means comforting. And the goal of Palliative Care is to manage troubling symptoms to make patients with serious illness more comfortable.
Symptom relief
Pathways wants patients to have the best quality of life possible. We believe that if we help relieve symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, nausea, constipation, itching or dozens of other possible symptoms, that patients will enjoy life and family more.
Who is it for?
Patients on Palliative Care generally have advanced illness. Some of the many diagnoses are cancer, chronic lung disease, heart failure or a neurologic disease. People with life-threatening illness may be getting curative treatments like chemotherapy or radiation.
How is Palliative care special?
- A Pathways doctor specializing in symptom control oversees Palliative Care in collaboration with your physician.
- Patients can receiving treatments such as radiation or chemotherapy while on Palliative Care.
- Palliative Care nurses are certified in palliative care or have had specialized training in symptom management.
- In addition to a visiting nurse, you may also have a social worker, volunteer visitor and spiritual care counselor for holistic physical, emotional and spiritual support.
- Pathways has pharmacists on staff who review every patient’s medications, looking for possible interactions or more effective recommendations.
- A nurse is on-call 24 hours a day for telephone consultation or visits if needed.
