How Palliative Care at Tidal Health is Helping Patients
SALISBURY, Md. – Palliative care is a unique form of medicine, and it’s the topic of this week’s Health Beat brought to you by TidalHealth.
Palliative care is a form of specialized medicine that seeks to optimize quality of life among those with serious illnesses. Dr. Edward Dunn, program director of Palliative Care at TidalHealth, spoke with WMDT about what palliative medicine encompasses.
The program at TidalHealth is both in-patient and out-patient, depending on the needs of the individual. Patients with all types of illnesses receive treatment, including those with heart failure, chronic lung disease, and frequent episodes of respiratory failure.
Dr. Dunn gave some examples of how a patient with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) could receive palliative care.
“If they decide they don’t want to be aggressive in care, and ultimately end up on a ventilator… we co-manage them with their neurologists and help support any symptoms they have and make sure that they understand what their options are. We’ll help them focus on their comfort, feeling, living where they want to live, [and] being with the people they want to be with,” he said.
Hospice care is also a viable form of palliative care, as the care in those environments is focused on keeping the patient comfortable.
While the treatment patients receive is a primary component of Palliative Care at TidalHealth, Dr. Dunn says the various members on staff are what make the program truly special. The team includes multiple physicians and nurses, but also chaplains and social workers that help individuals in their decision-making.
“It’s not all about physicians or me at all. We have a team — you can’t really do palliative care as a single practitioner, that’s not really palliative care. The chaplains are very important because spiritual values are important to people and they are very integral to many decisions people make about their lives. A social worker helps our patients and families understand what’s available to them in the community, like the medicine here in Salisbury.”
Dr. Dunn says the model employed in Salisbury is the model for palliative care around the country, and is soon to be implemented in Atlantic General Hospital and TidalHealth Nanticoke.
“People can self-schedule themselves if they wish, [but it’s] much better to go through a primary care physician or from a specialty like oncology or pulmonary medicine,” said Dr. Dunn, emphasizing the value of a doctor’s referral.
For more information about TidalHealth’s Palliative Care program, click here.
