Palliative Services at Rancho Springs Hospital
Palliative care focuses on pain and symptom management, coordination of care, information exchange, psycho-social support and bereavement counseling. Therapies are appropriate at any age, at any stage of illness, and often used alongside other treatments.
Palliative care is not end-of-life hospice services. People are generally referred to palliative care if they have a chronic, life-limiting illness like heart failure. Palliative therapies focus on enhancing the patient’s quality of life, pain management and daily function.
Palliative services at Rancho Springs Hospital
One of the most effective tools in palliative services is the ability to plan and encourage updates between families and medical providers. Care coordinators clarify when there’s a shift in medical status, when there’s a need to make treatment decisions or when families disagree on courses of treatment.
What is palliative care?
Palliative care is a range of supportive, specialized health services that offer guidance to both patients and caregivers. Support services might include:
- Conflict management
- Family conferences
- Care plan development
- Discussing ethical issues
- Post-discharge follow-up
The team at Rancho Springs Hospital in Murrieta, CA, is dedicated to providing quality, patient-centered treatments. An integrated care team might include doctors, nurses, physical therapists and social workers.
Conditions that benefit from palliative care
- Alzheimer’s
- Kidney disease
- Prostate cancer
- COVID-19
- Lung diseases
- Dementia
- Extreme anxiety
- Heart failure
- Multiple sclerosis (MS)
- HIV-AIDS
Several studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that patients living with a debilitating illness (like MS) who receive palliative care may live longer than patients who do not. Palliative services include support groups, pain management skills and self-soothing strategies for emotional distress.
Are palliative services covered by health insurance?
Many palliative medical services are covered by health insurance plans, so please check with your primary care physician before scheduling an appointment. One of the most helpful tasks a palliative team can perform is organizing effective ways to help the patient align with doctors, specialists, appointments and medications.
Find a doctor
For a free physician referral service at Rancho Springs Hospital in Murrieta, CA, call 800-879-1020 or search for a specialist online.