Palliative Care

Palliative care enhances medical treatment to help patients with serious, chronic or incurable illness experience the highest quality of life possible. Valley Health System’s palliative care programs combine the expertise and services of The Valley Hospital, Valley Home Care and Valley Medical Group to support patients and their families.

Palliative care services at Valley include:

• Inpatient palliative care
• Outpatient palliative care
• In-home palliative care

The Valley Approach to Palliative Care

Valley takes an integrated team approach to palliative care, focusing on preventing or relieving pain and other physical, emotional or spiritual distress that can accompany serious illness. Palliative care brings together a range of resources and is designed to work in partnership with each patient’s primary care physician to ensure comprehensive, coordinated care that is culturally diverse and sensitive to patients’ personal beliefs. 

Valley’s palliative care team helps patients and families:

• Make medical decisions
• Choose the best treatment options
• Plan care that reflects the patient’s goals, values and preferences
• Receive reliable information
• Manage pain, shortness of breath, delirium, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, anxiety, depression and difficulty sleeping

Conditions Treated

• Congestive heart failure (CHF)
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Advanced cancer
• Multiple sclerosis
• Kidney failure
• Neurological disorders (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s)
• Other serious illnesses

The Palliative Care Team

• Advanced practice nurses
• Physicians who are board certified in palliative care and other specialties
• Pain management
• Social workers
• Case managers
• Dietitians
• Holistic practitioners
• Registered nurses
• Pharmacists
• Chaplains
• Patient and Family Relations nurses
• Rehabilitation therapists
• Respiratory therapists
• Volunteers