Palliative Care Consultation Services
"A whole person and family-centered approach to living with serious illness."
Palliative Care Mission
The Mission of the Palliative Care Service at Lakeland Regional Medical Center is to provide exceptional healthcare by meeting the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs for patients and families facing advanced or life-threatening illness.
Surviving the Loss of a Loved One brochure
Palliative Care Offers Support
Palliative care is compassionate care for patients and families facing a serious illness affecting their quality of life. This unique care helps patients understand the information they need to make important decisions and participate in planning their own medical care.
Care is patient-centered, supporting the roles of family in decision-making and caregiving. The goals of Palliative Care are to maximize physical comfort and function, prevent or alleviate suffering and to enhance quality of life for patients and their families throughout the course of illness.
Palliative care strives to:
- Reduce the physical pain or other symptoms (for example-shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, anxiety) due to a serious illness. These symptoms may be from cancer, cardiac disease, respiratory disease, Alzheimer's, AIDS, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
- Provide psychological and spiritual support for the patient and family at times of illness, transition and loss.
- Support and assist the patient and family to clarify the goals of care/decision making process.
- Coordinate care with the personal preferences of the patient and family.
A Compassionate and Experienced Team
Our interdisciplinary team consists of a pharmacist and a clinical nurse specialist, with consulting physicians, social workers, and chaplains with clinical expertise in diseases, treatment options and symptom management. This team works closely with a patient's physician to coordinate the best possible care by taking time to:
- Facilitate optimal pain and symptom management
- Connect patients with beneficial hospital and community resources.
- Understand a patient's personal goals, family dynamics, and cultural and religious values.
- Foster communication between the patient/family and the healthcare team
This service is available Monday-Friday, during normal business hours, providing consultations for hospitalized patients. The consult request must be ordered by the primary physician.
More information about Advance Directives/Living Wills
External Links
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
National Hospice Foundation
Florida Hospices and Palliative Care Organization
Get Palliative Care
Dying Well
American for Better Care of the Dying
Inheritance of Hope
Center for Loss and Life Transition
