Providing Compassionate Care for Patients with Serious Illness.
Palliative medicine focuses on relieving the pain, symptoms and stress of serious illness and ensuring the highest possible quality of life for both patient and family. Palliative medicine treats chronic and/or serious illness regardless of prognosis, and patients can receive it at any point in their illness.
Palliative Care can be delivered at the same time as life prolonging care or as the main focus of care. Palliative care is accomplished with compassion and with the philosophy of treating the whole person – mind, body and spirit.
St. Vincent’s Palliative Medicine Consult Team offers the services of its highly trained staff at the request of the patient’s physician.
- The team assesses the pain and/or symptoms, as well as the psychosocial and emotional needs of the patient, first, and then the family, if appropriate.
- Our Palliative Medicine team can offer immediate assistance in an emergent situation or can participate in the goals of care throughout a patient’s illness.
- The consult team works closely with the attending physician to ensure that patients continue to receive expert and compassionate palliative care with or without curative treatment.