When you need extra support, compassion and care to enhance your quality of life and control symptoms of your disease, the hospice and palliative care specialists at Baptist Health South Florida are here for you.
Hospice care and palliative care both bring comfort to you during a chronic or serious illness. Palliative care supports your comfort while you receive treatment for your disease or condition, while hospice focuses on end-of-life care – once seeking a cure is no longer the goal.
When are hospice and palliative care needed?
Both palliative and hospice care focus on improving quality of life and making you more comfortable.
Palliative care can begin at any stage of illness but can be most beneficial if started soon after a diagnosis of a chronic, serious or life-limiting disease such as:
- Alzheimer's Disease
- Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
- Cancer
- Cardiac Disease
- Chronic Kidney Disease
- Chronic Pulmonary Disease
- Congestive Heart Failure
- Neurological Diseases including Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
While treatments to cure or manage the progress of an illness may be ongoing, palliative care focuses on pain control and comfort care so that your quality of life is optimized.
Hospice care is a type of palliative care that is appropriate when the end of life is expected within six months. Hospice care focuses fully on the comfort and wishes of the patient and family once treatment toward a cure is no longer the goal.
What services are considered palliative care?
The palliative care experts at Baptist Health South Florida can help you control symptoms and support your medical, spiritual and emotional needs when you are a patient in any of our South Florida hospitals. Our holistic approach is focused on helping you reach your health and lifestyle goals.
Our palliative care team can spend time with you and your family to fully answer questions you may have. Our services include:
- Assistance With Establishing Goals of Care
- Coordination of Care
- Counseling
- Emotional Support
- End-of-life Decisions Making
- Medication Management
- Pain and Symptom Control
- Spiritual Support
Our Approach to Hospice and Palliative Care Services
The mission of hospice and palliative care is the same as the Baptist Health South Florida mission – the patient is at the center of all we do. Our approach to hospice and palliative care includes:
- Treating you the way we would treat our own family
- Respecting and showing compassion for your life values
- Helping you remain as comfortable and pain-free as possible
Meet The Team
If you are receiving care at a Baptist Health South Florida hospital and think you can benefit from hospice or palliative care, talk to your doctor or social worker.