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Patients facing a serious illness often experience pain and other symptoms such as difficulty breathing, nausea, fatigue, constipation, loss of appetite, and difficulty sleeping. Whether a patient is facing a life-limiting illness and isn't ready for hospice, or a patient is fighting a life-limiting illness and strill seeking curative treatment, the Palliative Care Program at BVNAH may be able to help provide some relief.
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Palliative Care Admission Criteria
Consider palliative care for patients with life-threatening illnesses who:
- Receive comfort and/or curative treatment
- Meet homebound requirements of their insurance coverage
- Require skilled care and treatment, such as:
- Skilled wound care
- Intravenous therapy
- Complex pain or symptom management
- Complex assessment skills
- Symptom instability longer than two weeks
- New medication regimen
- Numerous medication changes.
- Require education of family and/or patient regarding disease protocol, skilled treatments, and unmet needs.
- Would benefit from case management for high-risk patients
- Coordination of multiple services
- May be eligible for hospice, but currently pursuing curative treatments or has declined hospice services.
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Who Can Benefit from the BVNAH Palliative Care Program?
- Patients of any age, including children, with debilitating chronic disease or life-threatening illness at any stage of the diagnosis.
- Patients with life-limiting illness experiencing unresolved symptoms such as pain or shortness of breath.
- Patients who have frequent hospital or emergency room visits to manage shortness of breath, swelling, confusion, or other complex symptoms.
- Patients seeking aggressive treatments, to alleviate the side effects and help them to better tolerate ongoing treatments.
- Chronically ill patients and their families who are not yet ready to accept hospice care.
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For more information, to make a referral,
or for a consultation to see if a patient is appropriate
for Palliative Care, call 800-249-8298
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