Palliative Care Definition- a specialty that cares for patients facing serious illness at any point in their disease/injury trajectory where the focus is both patient and family. PC helps in 3 major areas:
- Symptom management:
- Assessing and treating distressing symptoms such as pain and shortness of breath.
- Goals of Care:
- Helping patients develop a medically realistic plan that is consistent with their goals.
- Discharge options:
- Help teams, families and patients navigate discharge options including hospice vs. palliative care, rehabilitation and home health.
Primary Palliative Care Definition:
The basic palliative care principles/skills that all clinicians (not specialty trained in PC) should know.
Examples of primary palliative care principals:
- Introduce palliative care.
- Know eligibility criteria for hospice.
- Explore goals of care in a patient with a new serious diagnosis (eg. cancer, stroke, advanced heart failure).
- Explore goals of care in a patient that has a change in functional/cognitive status.
- Help patient identify a surrogate decision maker if patient loses ability to make his/her decisions.
Specialty Palliative Care Definition:
The specialized principles/skills/care that clinicians with specialty training in PC provide.
- Indications to request primary team consult palliative care:
- Goals of Care
- Explore complex goals of care with patients/families such as uncertain prognosis or families who have different opinion.,
- Symptom Management
- Treat persistent uncontrolled symptoms after trial of treatment by primary treating team.
- Hospice
- Referrals to hospice for patients with complex needs.
- Surrogate Decision Makers
- Assistance with a plan of care when there is no surrogate and patient lacks capacity to make decisions.
- Goals of Care
Hospice Definition (different from palliative care):
An insurance benefit for patients whose goal is to maximize quality of life and forego life prolonging therapies who have a life expectancy of less than 6 months based on the natural course of their disease.
Family meetings Definition:
A planned opportunity for patients, families and providers to dialogue and communicate specific information such as:
- Breaking bad news-sharing a new diagnosis.
- Establish goals of care.
- Update family/patient on their condition.
- Identify a surrogate when a patient lacks capacity.