Improving Your Quality of Life
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is committed to the emotional, social, spiritual, and physical comfort of you and your family from the moment of diagnosis and throughout your entire journey with a serious or chronic illness, such as cancer, heart failure, or ALS. We offer inpatient and outpatient palliative care services at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center (Milstein Hospital) and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center (on East 68th Street). Our palliative care teams work with other members of the healthcare team to:
- Support your treatment
- Enhance your comfort
- Maintain your quality of life
- Foster hope and family connection.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care aims to achieve relief from the multiple symptoms — including pain, fatigue, and distress — that often result from a serious or chronic illness, whatever the diagnosis. It is appropriate for people of any age and at any stage of illness and can be given in conjunction with treatment intended to cure your illness. We believe that palliative care should be introduced as early as possible in your care.
Palliative care is not the same as hospice or end-of-life care. Hospice is a type of palliative care focused on relieving discomfort for someone who is terminally ill, in the final months of life, and no longer receiving curative treatment. Palliative care, on the other hand, provides symptom relief and emotional and spiritual support services from the moment of diagnosis throughout the course of a patient’s illness to improve quality of life for both the patient and family.
The Palliative Care Team
Our palliative care team members work with you and your family to offer relief from pain, symptoms, and stress associated with your illness or its treatment. Our core teams of doctors, nurses and nurse practitioners, social workers, and chaplains ensure that your treatments align with your personal values, preferences, and healthcare goals. We draw on the expertise of additional providers, including physical therapists, psychiatrists, ethics specialists, and others as needed to offer the support you need. We also collaborate with your primary care doctor.
Why Consider Palliative Care Services?
Palliative care has been shown to:
- Improve the quality of care
- Decrease symptoms such as pain, anxiety, and depression
- Improve survival
- Support patients and families
- Help with decision making and determining the goals of therapy
- Help patients achieve a sense of control
- Relieve the burden on family members
Palliative Care Fellowship
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital offers a Fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Care Medicine that includes rotations through multiple adult-care and pediatric hospitals. Learn more.