Penn Medicine offers consultation with palliative care professionals for hospitalized patients and an outpatient clinic at both the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine and the Penn Pain Medicine Center. Partners at Penn’s Home Care & Hospice Services provide home-based palliative and hospice care.
Life takes on new meaning when you receive a cancer diagnosis. Doctor appointments, therapy dates and uncomfortable or painful symptoms derail your daily routines of family, work and leisure. Now you have worries about medical decisions and concerns about an uncertain future. Even with top medical care, outstanding nursing support and your family at your side, these are trying times.
Palliative care is a medical specialty focused on relieving pain and other symptoms, and helping patients and families navigate difficult medical decisions. When life gets distressing, palliative care can provide an extra layer of support. Effective symptom management is necessary for many patients coping with serious illness, regardless of the diagnosis or stage of disease. Most hospitals in the United States have a palliative care program, either as a consultation service in the hospital or access to professionals in the outpatient area.
Many people confuse palliative care with hospice care. While they both focus on symptom management, they are not the same. Palliative care supports patients with unacceptable pain, symptoms, or emotional distress at any stage of their illness. While hospice also offers palliative care, it is reserved for individuals with a limited life expectancy who may require advanced symptom management and comprehensive home care.
A Palliative Care Story
Bill, a 67-year-old retired Air Force pilot was vacationing with his wife, Ruth, when his life took a tailspin.
He began to experience difficulty swallowing and gnawing abdominal pain. Back at home, Bill’s doctors found cancer in his pancreas. Bill did not waver when cancer specialists at Penn's comprehensive cancer center, the Abramson Cancer Center recommended an aggressive treatment program of chemotherapy and radiation.
His oncologist prescribed pain medicines, but the pain broke through sapping his appetite and disrupting his sleep. His wife, Ruth, was concerned that at this rate Bill would not be able to tolerate his full treatment.
For extra help, Bill’s doctor referred him to Michael Ashburn, MD and Barbara Reville, DNP, CRNP clinic, at Penn’s Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine. In addition to his pain, the team asked Bill and Ruth about other symptoms and practical needs. As a result of a change in his pain medicine and a referral for home nursing visits, Bill is back on course toward recovery.
Bill and Ruth continue to hope for the best. During discussions with the palliative care professionals, they expressed a desire for complete and honest information from their doctors about Bill’s progress and his options. There may come a time when less treatment and more palliative care are best for Bill. If his symptoms worsen, palliative care professionals can partner with Bill’s oncologist to optimize his medicines and discuss options.
But for now, Bill maintains his recovery plan and is living well.
Learn more about palliative care at Penn Medicine.
Learn more about Penn Home Care & Hospice Services.
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