Clinic’s new program offers care for people with serious illnesses

Palliative care focuses on symptom management and helping the patient to consider and make end-of-life decisions. Palliative care patients may have diagnoses such as lung disease (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), congestive heart failure, HIV or cancer. They may be in remission but dealing with psychosocial issues, or they may be in active treatment for the disease and need help managing the resulting symptoms, such as pain related to cancer or nausea from chemotherapy treatment, Tang said.

Palliative care also helps patients facing the end of their lives to consider their advanced directives and final wishes.

Tang can discuss possible treatments and outcomes with patients, helping them to understand whether a treatment would provide their desired outcome or add undue pain and trauma without the desired outcome. Those discussions can prevent patients from undergoing tests or procedures that may not be necessary or wanted, Tang said.

“We don’t have these conversations with patients enough,” she said.

Ideally, Tang said, palliative care is brought in at the point of disease diagnosis. Having these discussions earlier, she said, helps to ensure the patient’s wishes are honored, rather than the family having to make an emotional decision when a loved one is dying.

“The spirit of palliative care is honoring your patient,” she said.

The palliative care team is multidisciplinary. When patients are referred to palliative care, Tang will work with social workers and care managers, as well as the patient’s primary and specialty care providers.

Typically, palliative care is found in acute, inpatient settings, such as hospitals. The Vancouver Clinic is taking a forward-thinking approach by bringing palliative care to an outpatient setting, Tang said.

By having the program at The Vancouver Clinic, Seekamp said, he hopes to “bring those crucial conversations upstream.”

“We want those conversations to happen before you’re in the hospital,” he said.

Tang also will train and educate other clinic providers about how to have end-of-life conversations with their patients so all providers have “the palliative touch,” she said.

While providers in some departments and specialities are familiar and comfortable with end-of-life discussions, not everyone has that experience or comfort level, Seekamp said.

Tang’s expertise will benefit providers and patients, he said.

“It’s going to make health care better for our patients,” Seekamp said. “It’s exciting and something that I think we’ve needed for a while, so I’m proud to be able to offer it.”