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Home » Services » Palliative Care

Palliative Care

Palliative care provides relief from the pain, stress and other debilitating symptoms of chronic and terminal illnesses.

Unlike hospice care, which focuses on comfort care at the end of life, palliative care continues to provide treatment regardless of life expectancy.

It can be delivered at any stage of an illness and alongside conventional treatments that are meant to cure the patient, such as chemotherapy.

Persons who may benefit from palliative care include those with:

Cancer
Congestive Heart Failure
HIV/AIDS
Kidney Failure

These patients often experience pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, and nausea, among other symptoms. Palliative care helps to manage the pain, assists with communication and arranges for services.

Palliative Care at Home

For patients with persistent symptoms who are at risk for re-hospitalization, we offer the following services in patients' homes:

Physician and nursing visits
Social work
Spiritual counseling
Occupational therapy
Physical therapy
Speech therapy
Home health aides

Palliative Care is provided by our McAuley Seton Home Care division.

Palliative Care in Action

A person with chronic lung and heart disease was experiencing repeat hospital stays and was enrolled in our Home Care program. The next time that she became ill, short of breath, and felt the need to go to the hospital, she called the palliative care team.

The team nurse instructed the patient to take medicine that had been placed in her home should a change in health occur. When the nurse arrived, she took vital signs, examined the patient, adjusted several medications, and worked to find the trigger.

A physician, who had been communicating with the nurse, also went to the patient's home on the same day. The patient stabilized quickly. Her daughter said, "We would have gone to the hospital, but the program allowed her to stay home."

Because of the home visits by the palliative care team, a previously overlooked trigger to her illness was identified, and a social worker and spiritual counselor worked with the patient to address that trigger.

Arranging for Palliative Care

If you are living at home (not admitted to a hospital) and would like palliative care services, please contact McAuley Seton Home Care and request a call from Jackie Kish or Dr. Bruce Naughton.

Director of Palliative Medicine

Dr. Bruce Naughton is the Director of Palliative Medicine at Mercy Hospital, LIFE and Home Care.

Palliative Care at Kenmore Mercy Hospital

For more than a decade, Kenmore Mercy Hospital has been providing inpatient hospice care to patients throughout our community.

Hospice Beds for Terminally Ill Patients

On the 2 West Patient Care Unit, our newly remodeled hospice suites feature a peaceful, home-like atmosphere and specially trained staff to help patients and their families facing the end of life’s journey.

The suites include:

a comfortably furnished patient room with warm wood accents
soft lighting
wheelchair-accessible bathroom
adjacent “family room” with sleeper chairs, flat screen TV, and kitchenette with a microwave and refrigerator

Palliative Care at Mercy Hospital of Buffalo

Daily Consultations

At Mercy Hospital, a palliative team visits patients daily to provide consultations, counseling, and coordinate care.

If you are currently a patient at Mercy Hospital and would like to speak with a member of the palliative team, please call (716) 929-3218.

Hospice Beds for Terminally Ill Patients

Mercy Hospital offers a specially designed Palliative Care Unit featuring four private rooms, a semi-private room and a spacious family room. Each room features a warm, home-like atmosphere with comfortable furnishings and amenities.

Working in partnership with the professionals of Hospice Buffalo, Inc., the unit's staff are specially trained to help patients and their families who are facing the end of life’s journey.