Author: Dr. Jennifer Blechman, Palliative Care Medical Director
Summit Medical Group Oregon and Partners In Care in Central Oregon have enjoyed a strong collaboration for many years – we are celebrating 10 years of the palliative care team from Partners In Care being embedded at Summit this month!
Palliative care is specialized medical care that helps people living with serious illness – and their families– live better. We work as a team of specialists to improve quality of life, reduce the symptoms and stresses associated with life-limiting illness, and help align medical treatments with a person’s goals and values to ensure they get the best care possible.
Palliative care is an extra layer of support for patients and families in Central Oregon that is provided concurrently with care they are receiving from their other healthcare providers – palliative care does not replace primary care or specialist teams. Ideally, palliative care is started soon after the diagnosis of a serious illness as we know now that people dealing with a serious health issue live better, and often longer, when palliative care is involved in conjunction with disease-modifying therapies. Palliative care can make the most impact when introduced early in the disease trajectory and is appropriate for patients of any age and at any stage of a serious illness. Palliative care is covered by health insurance – it is the same as seeing any other medical specialist.
Palliative care is NOT hospice care. Hospice is provided by a team of specialists that sees patients where they are living and is appropriate only for people in their last six months of life when they are no longer getting disease-modifying therapies such as chemotherapy or surgery. Hospice remains the gold standard for end-of-life care.
Palliative care is appropriate for people living with any serious illness, such as cancer, dementia, neurodegenerative disease, advanced heart failure, COPD, and advanced renal disease, among others. Appropriate patients are anyone with difficult-to-manage symptoms related to their serious illness, people who need clarification of medical care goals, or those needing support with complex medical decision making.
If you ever have a question about whether a patient is appropriate for referral, please reach out to us at (541) 382-5882 at Partners In Care.
Our palliative care team is at Summit every day of the week. Dr. Blechman typically sees patients in the oncology clinic; Adam Pike NP sees patients in the cardiology/pulmonary clinic. We also see patients at Bend Transitional Care alongside the Summit hospitalist team. Palliative Care chaplain David Higginbotham sees patients in all these settings. We can also see people in the community through the rest of our Partners In Care team.
Reach out to us today if you or a loved one need help navigating a serious illness and think that palliative care may help!