Thanks to modern medicine, people are living longer with serious, chronic and complex illness such as cancer. But today’s health care system is fragmented in a way that makes it difficult to navigate – just when the medical needs of chronically ill patients are growing at a rapid rate.
Moreover, studies have consistently shown that these patients endure untreated pain and other symptoms, lengthy hospitalizations involving unwanted, often futile and costly medical treatments and low overall family satisfaction – particularly with the quality of their hospital care. Add to this scenario the fact that today’s health care consumers, especially baby boomers, are aging and experiencing increased health care demands.
Palliative care is the new paradigm that can meet these rising demands. It is the medical subspecialty focused on providing relief from the symptoms, pain, and stress of serious illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient and the family. It is appropriate at any age and any stage of disease and can be provided along with curative treatment.
Palliative care provides interdisciplinary coordination and team-driven continuity of care that best responds to the episodic and longer-term nature of serious, multifaceted illness. And because palliative care efficiently uses hospital resources and delivery systems, it provides patients, medical institutions, the health care system and clinicians with an ongoing, effective and inclusive solution to a growing and difficult challenge.
Palliative care is essential to achieving the goal of excellent yet cost-effective care. It helps patients complete treatments, including rehabilitation to address impairments, and improves quality of life for patients, survivors, and caregivers. Studies show that cancer patients receiving palliative care during chemotherapy are more likely to complete their cycle of treatment, stay in clinical trials and report a higher quality of life than similar patients who did not receive palliative care.
People facing serious illness want the types of services that palliative care provides – and they expect today’s hospitals, cancer centers and other care settings to deliver. The pillars of palliative care involve:
- Time to devote to intensive family meetings and patient/family counseling
- Expertise in managing complex physical and emotional symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, depression, and nausea
- Communication and support for resolving family/ patient/physician questions concerning goals of care
- Coordination of care transitions across health care settings
The public recognizes the benefits of this added layer of support from a palliative care team focused on quality of life. The patient-centered, holistic information and clear communication these teams provide enable patients and families to share in the important decisions they need to make as a result of the illness and treatment options.
To benefit from palliative care, patients and families must be able to access these services in their local hospital or other care settings. In addition, health professionals in training must learn from direct experience at the bedside with high-quality palliative care teams. ACS CAN supports policy initiatives that train the health care workforce, invest in research, and improve patient access to palliative care.
ACS CAN urges legislators to help frame palliative care as a core component of quality care and tap the expertise of palliative care specialists and other stakeholders to advise development, implementation, and evaluation of statewide strategies and policies to:
- Educate the public about palliative care. In partnership with state departments of health and community stakeholders, provide palliative care information online and through other channels to help consumers and clinicians understand palliative care and the benefits of integrating it with disease-directed treatment for all seriously ill adults and kids.
- Improve access to palliative care services. Encourage policies requiring routine screening of patients for palliative care needs and facilitating access to palliative care services in all health care settings serving seriously ill adults and kids (e.g., hospitals, cancer centers, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, home care agencies).
- Boost generalist palliative care clinical skills. Foster dissemination of proven training interventions and other strategies that enhance
generalist palliative care competencies, including clinical communication skills, among all practicing health professionals and students of medicine, nursing, and other professions to align educational requirements and professional practices with current evidence demonstrating the importance of integrating palliative care alongside disease-directed treatment. - Preserve access to pain therapies for people in pain. Implement balanced policies that promote delivery of integrated pain care for all people facing pain, including preserving access to prescription medications and other therapies, as well as improving workforce training in pain assessment,management, responsible prescribing, and use of prescription monitoring programs.
Click here to read ACS CAN’s full Progress Report on State Legislative Activity to Reduce Cancer Incidence and Mortality and learn more about the four states that have passed legislation this session that focus on improving patient quality of life through palliative care.
