PALLIATIVE CARE

Relieving suffering and improving the quality of life for patients with life-threatening illness and their families.

What is palliative care?
Palliative care is a medical specialty focused on meeting the unique needs of someone with a serious illness. Palliative care provides expert treatment of the pain, other symptoms and the stress that can occur with a life-threatening illness.

How does palliative care differ from hospice care?
Hospice care is for patients whom the physician feels are terminally ill, and for those who are no longer a candidate for, or who have refused, curative treatment.

Palliative care, however, can be offered simultaneously with active medical treatment designed to halt or cure the illness. Patients receiving palliative care may not be terminally ill or may expect to live for a longer period than is usually appropriate for hospice care.

What are the benefits of palliative care?

Palliative care has many benefits, including:

• Helping patients feel better throughout their illness by effective treatment of pain and symptoms such as nausea or fatigue.
• Assisting patients and families in making decisions about care and treatments based on their goals of care.
• Keeping patients as comfortable as possible at all stages of illness.
• Facilitating discussions regarding changes in the goals of care if treatment does not appear to be managing the disease.
• Assisting patients with life-threatening illness, and their caregivers, by creating an Advance Care Plan.
• Supporting families during times of difficulty due to the patient's illness or decline.

Who can receive palliative care?
Seriously ill patients who need expert pain or symptom relief, or help with understanding or coordinating their care, should ask their doctor for a palliative care consultation. Palliative care specialists work with a patient's attending physician to deliver this care while the patient is receiving other treatments at all stages of an illness.

How does a patient get referred?

• Patients can talk with their physician about their desire for palliative care.
• A referral from the primary care physician is required in the form of a written or verbal order.
• A member of the palliative care team will evaluate the patient once the referral is made.
• If a patient's physician is not familiar with palliative care, the patient can call 704-375-0100.

What is the role of a referring physician?
The patient's physician will be an active member of the palliative care team and will be involved in any decisions that are made. The palliative care team will remain involved with the patient's care as long as their services are needed, with the patient being discharged back to the care of his or her regular medical team if palliative care is no longer needed.

If you are a physician, please refer to the referral criteria fact sheet.

Who provides the palliative care service?
Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) and Hospice & Palliative Care Charlotte Region (HPCCR), a provider of hospice and palliative care services to individuals and families in their homes and residential facilities in the Charlotte region, work together to bring palliative care to all patients served by CHS.

HPCCR's program, Palliative Care Consultants (PCC), is a team of physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers and chaplains/grief counselors. PCC collaborates daily with a team of CHS specialists to manage the care of patients with advanced, life-threatening illnesses. This collaboration ensures that patients with life-threatening illnesses are able to access quality, coordinated care.

To learn more about palliative care, contact your physician or call Palliative Care Consultants at
704-375-0100 (available 24 hours / 7 days a week).