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Monday, September 18, 2017

“Going Palliative” is Not a Thing

by Staci Mandrola

I love the segment on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver called “How is this still a thing?” His snarky Britishness targets everything from the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue to ‘Why do we dress up as other races?’ The skits start out funny but leave you questioning and unsettled.

I hope “going palliative” ends before it shows up on “How is this still a thing?” How do I know "going palliative" is a thing? The phrase is popping up in the academic medical center where I practice palliative care. [And many other hospitals too - Ed.] PT/OT has signed off patients who have a palliative consult ordered (not completed). MDs and APRNs call to ask why their patients are still receiving disease-directed treatment when they “went palliative” last week. Nursing staff asks if they need to continue accuchecks because Ms. A is “going palliative.” Social workers ask why Mr. C hasn’t transferred to the hospice inpatient unit because he “went palliative.”

Aaarrgghh.

“Going palliative” became a thing because hospice became a bad word. Hospice is a synonym in the hospital for dying that makes patients and healthcare professionals upset. We are Americans and we battle through adversity. We praise John McCain for his fighting spirit that will help him beat his cancer. Then we temper the language of courage because we know that none of us will ultimately win the battle. In our hospital, palliative has become a four-syllable bait-and-switch for hospice. And now they have figured it out. When you’re “going palliative”, people use it as code for hospice.

Nope.

Hospice care is for patients who request primarily comfort focused care with the desire to remain in a home-like setting and avoid a medicalized death while having expert management of distressing symptoms. They choose to elect their Medicare Hospice Benefit which is predicated on a physician certifying a prognosis of less than six months. They and their loved ones receive equipment, medication, psychosocial/spiritual care, nursing care and 24-hour support that is a phone call away.

Palliative care is for patients with any prognosis. It can be hours, but it is just as likely to be years. It runs right alongside disease-directed care. Our palliative team consulted on a twenty-year-old battling opioid addiction who needed treatment of severe headache, nausea and dizziness after a motorcycle accident. Our team consulted with a ninety-year-old man who wanted full disclosure of the risks, benefits and alternatives to an open aortic valve replacement. He is alive five years later.

Palliative care manages distressing symptoms at any stage of life and illness. Palliative care provides social, emotional and spiritual support to patients dealing with serious illness and their families. Palliative care helps patients determine what gives their lives meaning and how available medical treatments support or prevent them from continuing to make that meaning.

Palliative care is not an "either/or" choice. It is a “both” choice.

And yes, palliative care may still recommend hospice care when it is appropriate based on that patient’s goals and prognosis.

Why not change our name to “quality of life” care or supportive care? Eventually, healthcare professionals would ask why Ms. A needs accuchecks because she is “going quality of life” or “going supportive.”

“Going palliative” is not a thing. Most palliative care teams won’t employ John Oliver’s brand of snarkiness. But if we don’t continue to educate our colleagues, “Going Palliative-How is this still a thing?” is right around the corner.

Please visit PalliativeDoctors.org for an in-depth look at palliative care, hospice care and the team approach.

Staci Mandrola (@drstacim) is a wife, mother, grandmother and palliative medicine physician who practices in Louisville, KY. Her husband John writes about cardiology and sometimes palliative care issues at Dr John M.

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