Palliative Care: Comfort at Any Stage of Illness
The Palliative Care team at Cleveland Clinic serves patients and families impacted by serious illnesses like cancer, heart failure, advanced lung disease, and neurodegenerative disorders. Palliative care focuses on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of serious illness with the goal of improving quality of life for both the patient and family. Our interdisciplinary Palliative Care team, which is made up of physicians, advanced practice nurses, social workers, and RN’s is specially-trained to help with the wide range of physical, emotional, and social challenges patients and families encounter. The Palliative Care team is an extra layer of support and works closely with the rest of your medical providers, including specialists and your PCP (primary care provider). Palliative care is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness and is provided along with curative or disease-modifying therapies. The Palliative Care team is committed to supporting patients and families throughout the course of their serious illness, across care settings and transitions. Cleveland Clinic’s Palliative Care specialists also support patients and families nearer to the end of life, when it’s time for a more conservative, comfort-focused plan of care with Hospice.
Founded in 1987, the Palliative Care Program at Cleveland Clinic has a distinguished history, including the first acute Palliative Care unit and physician fellowship training program in the US. The program has evolved into a Department that reaches across care settings all over Northeast Ohio, including Cleveland Clinic’s Main Campus, regional hospitals, outpatient clinics and homecare settings. Cleveland Clinic continues to lead innovation in the field of Palliative Care through its implementation of novel models of care, including embedded consultation in cancer and targeted consultation in the Medical Intensive Care Unit and Neurological and Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute.
What is palliative care?
Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness. This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of the illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family.
Palliative care is provided by a specially-trained team of doctors, nurses and other specialists who work together with a patient’s other doctors to provide an extra layer of support. Palliative care is based on the needs of the patient, not on the patient’s prognosis. It is appropriate at any age and at any stage in a serious illness, and it can be provided along with curative treatment.
The team provides expert treatment of physical symptoms including pain, nausea, or tiredness and also address emotional, social and spiritual impacts of serious illness on both patients and their loved ones. We often advocate to ensure that patients’ wishes are being heard, and that treatments are aligned with their goals and values.
Who could benefit from palliative care?
Patients with serious illnesses including cancer, heart failure, and certain lung diseases like COPD.
Patients or families dealing with the stress of a serious illness.
Patients dealing with pain or other symptoms related to a serious illness.
Patients and families facing difficult decisions about their health.
Who is on the team?
The patient and family.
Palliative Medicine physicians.
Physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
Social workers.
Registered nurses.
The Palliative Care team collaborates with your other healthcare providers, including your primary care physician or specialists (oncologists, cardiologists, etc.)
The Palliative Care team can also facilitate referrals with other supportive services like nutritionists, chaplains, and art or music therapists.
Where is care provided?
Hospitals.
Outpatient clinics.
Nursing facilities.
Homes.
What is the difference between palliative care and hospice?
Palliative Care and Hospice are different areas of medicine and serve different types of patients. While both Palliative Care and Hospice aim to improve quality of life for patients with serious illnesses, Palliative Care treats patients at any stage of illness, alongside other disease therapy. Hospice, on the other hand, focuses on patients no longer receiving life-prolonging treatments, including patients at the end of life.
To learn more about available hospice options, please visit Cleveland Clinic Hospice.
Patient Resources
Palliative care will affect most people at some stage whether as a patient, carer, family member, neighbor or friend. Read through our hospice and palliative care resources, tips and support for caregivers, family and loved ones.
Learn about and download Advance Directive documentation (Health Care Power of Attorney and Living Will) to ensure your healthcare wishes are fulfilled by your medical team.
Pediatric Palliative Care and Medicine
Meet our Cleveland Clinic Children’s Pediatric Palliative Care team and schedule an appointment.
Palliative and Hospice Care for Heart Failure
Watch a video on palliative care and view resources from The Miller Family Heart, Vascular & Thoracic Institute.
Review the programs and services offered by Ohio’s best Geriatric Medicine program.
View a comprehensive library of helpful programs for patients and their families who are facing the difficulties of a cancer diagnosis.
Receive an overview of our hospice program and learn more about the services offered and how to request for a loved one.
Discover a public engagement initiative dedicated to helping people talk about their wishes for end-of-life care.
A website providing clear, comprehensive palliative care information for people living with a serious illness.
Author, Cleveland Clinic
