--The World Health Organization

Providing comfort and care to patients with progressive, life-threatening illness and their families through palliative care is an important focus of a program at Baptist Hospital East.

The Palliative Care Unit at Baptist East -- the first of its kind in Louisville -- serves as a bridge to hospice or home care. The unit, 4 Park, is a 24-bed, acute inpatient unit specializing in palliative care for patients with long-term or terminal illness when a cure is not expected.

The purpose of the unit is to help patients with serious illness through the course of their disease in order to achieve the best possible comfort and quality of life.

What is palliative care?

Palliative care recognizes the special needs of patients with chronic and/or terminal illnesses. The goal is not to cure, but to provide comfort and maintain the highest possible quality of life for as long as life remains.

There is a difference between hospice and palliative care. Hospice patients must have a condition for which a cure is no longer possible, and their personal physician must specify that the patient has approximately six months or less to live. Unlike hospice, palliative care is intended for patients with life-limiting illnesses, not just those with imminently terminal conditions. As with hospice care, palliative care provides patients with symptom management, and psychosocial and spiritual services as needed.

Tender treatment

Treatment focuses on the management of physical symptoms as well as emotional and spiritual comfort for patients and their families without the aggressive treatments and tests often routine in traditional hospital settings. The goal is to have symptoms stabilized quickly so quality of life can improve and transfer to home or other services can occur within a five-day period.

Our palliative care consultative team consists of a medical adviser, oncology clinical nurse specialist, critical care clinician, social worker, palliative care charge nurse and chaplain. These highly-experienced team members are specially trained to meet patients' needs.

At the request of a physician or nurse, the team members assess a patient's need for palliative care services. The team assists the physician in tailoring an effective plan of care for the patient and family. The team also helps set and clarify the goals of care and expectations for patients and families.

The team, as well as the unit staff, assists with the discharge process, helping the family sort through options such as home health, nursing home care or hospice services. In addition, families are taught by the unit staff about how to care for their loved ones at home.

Patients with advanced, progressive disease needing aggressive symptom management may benefit from the Palliative Care Unit. Patients or family members should ask their physician, or call (502) 259-4238 for more information.