Strategies for whole system change in healthcare (HEARTS in HEALTHCARE)

What is palliative care?

This draft document has been prepared by George Hankins Hull Palliative Care The aim of palliative care is to ease the suffering that results from illness. Palliative care seeks to provide treatment for your symptoms, even when the underlying disease cannot be cured. The goals of palliative care are to relieve your pain and other discomfort and to help reduce your family’s stress. In addition, palliative care seeks to provide information to help you cope and live with a chronic illness. Palliative care encompasses emotional, social, and spiritual needs as well. During the course of your illness, a palliative approach to care can help you and your family to achieve a better quality of life. To request a palliative care consultation You or your family can make a request to consult a palliative care team representative by speaking with your nurse or doctor. Your health care team also may decide to request a palliative care consult. A palliative care representative will visit you within 24

At End of Life, Family Often Too Optimistic on Survival Educating a family about a poor prognosis has always been difficult. Now a study appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals the extent of misunderstanding when patients and physicians both try predict the chance of a loved one's survival. In this 150-second analysis, MedPage Today clinical reviewer F. Perry Wilson MD, MSCE, breaks down the data.

20 Improvements in End of Life Care

20 Improvements in End of Life Care Changes Internists Could Do Next Week! Don Berwick, MD Institute for HealthCare Improvement at the ACP-ASIM Annual Meeting, April 22, 1999 (prepared by Americans for Better Care of the Dying) 1.Ask yourself as you see patients, "Would I be surprised if this patient died in the next few months?" For those "sick enough to die," prioritize the patient's concerns - often symptom relief, family support, continuity, advance planning, or spirituality. 2.To eliminate anxiety and fear, chronically ill patients must understand what is likely to happen. When you see a patient who is "sick enough to die" - tell the patient, and start counseling and planning around that possibility. 3.To understand your patients, ask (1) "What do you hope for, as you live with this condition," (2) "What do you fear?," (3) It is usually hard to know when death is close. If you were to die soon, what would be left undone in your

Palliative Care Conversations

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