Palliative Medicine and Hospice

Our mission is to provide patient and family centered care that offers quality of life for patients with life limiting illnesses by anticipating, preventing, and treating suffering. Our team is comprised of Board-Certified Palliative Medicine and Hospice physicians, advanced practice professionals, nurses, social workers, chaplains, pharmacists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, dietitians, and speech therapists committed to providing high quality care. The Division provides inpatient and outpatient palliative medicine services and seeks to impact and advance the field by engaging in division based as well as collaborative research projects.

Palliative Medicine and Hospice includes:

  • Careful pain and symptom assessment and control
  • Psychosocial and spiritual support to patients and families
  • Discussion about patients' goals for care so that they can be respected
  • Coordination of service among the different teams treating an individual
  • Assistance with identifying the patient's and family's preferred place of care and discharge (home, nursing home, long-term acute hospital, or in-patient hospice)
  • Inpatient Palliative Medicine consultations at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital
  • General Inpatient (GIP) hospice care at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital
  • Coordination of the patients care with all the hospice agencies in the region