For more information, call St. John's Palliative Care Services at (805) 988-2890
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Comprehensive Services, Award Winning Program
Our Goal: The Best Quality of Life Possible
The goal of palliative care is to support the best possible quality of life for patients with advanced chronic or life-limiting illnesses and their family. Our interdisciplinary team of board certified palliative care experts is here to guide and support hospitalized patients and their loved ones by:
- Effectively managing pain and other distressing symptoms of disease to relieve suffering
- Arranging care conferences to help patients and families better understand the course of illness and options for treatment
- Helping patients and families make choices regarding goals of care, which may include disease-modifying treatment as well as comfort measures
- Giving emotional and spiritual support that respects the patient and family’s faith, beliefs, and values
- Coordinating complex care needs, including home health services, hospice, and transfer to other care facilities
- Offering music therapy for relaxation and stress reduction
- Providing a Growing through Grief bereavement services program for anyone in the community who has lost a loved one
Comfort Care at the End of Life
Our Comfort Care Program supports the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients and families as they prepare for death. Our palliative care physicians and nurses provide expertise in pain and symptom management and assist families in understanding the dying process. Our chaplains and social workers provide spiritual and emotional comfort and practical assistance with end-of-life care concerns. St. John’s has comfort care suites at both hospitals, designed to offer hospitality to families tending to loved ones near the end of life. These rooms, complete with many amenities, were made possible by generous donations from the hospitals’ auxiliaries.
St. John’s Receives Prestigious Circle of Life Recognition
Awarded by AHA On July 6, 2009, St. John’s Regional Medical Center and St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital were named a Circle of Life Award® honoree by the American Hospital Association (AHA). St. John’s received this prestigious citation of honor in recognition of its strong trans-disciplinary team, leadership in advanced healthcare planning, impressive bereavement services, and overall innovative program that improves the care of patients living with advanced life-limiting illnesses.
St. John’s is one of five organizations honored this year by the Circle of Life Award Program, which recognizes and celebrates programs across the nation that have made great strides in palliative and end-of-life care. To address the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of end-of-life patients and their families, St. John’s Palliative Care Program offers a comprehensive interdisciplinary approach that involves board certified palliative care physicians, nurses, chaplains, social workers, dieticians, pharmacists and music therapists. The team provides extensive educational programs for hospital staff to improve their knowledge and skill in providing excellent pain and symptom management.
Palliative care coordinates care for patients and their families facing advanced illnesses, providing resources and helping them make decisions about goals of care consistent with their own beliefs and values. Palliative care can assist patients and families at any stage of a serious diagnosis, helping patients to maintain the highest quality of life possible. St. John’s was chosen by a selection committee made up of leaders from medicine, nursing, social work, ethics, and health administration. This is the tenth year for the Circle of Life Award.
For more information on the Circle of Life Award, visit www.aha.org/circleoflife.
Award Winning Team
Our Palliative Care Team
Our palliative care interdisciplinary team has been nationally recognized for our excellent palliative care services. We received a Circle of Life Citation of Honor in 2009.
Major sponsors of this award include the American Hospital Association, the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, the Catholic Health Association, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, and the National Hospice Foundation. 2009 Circle of Life co-sponsors include the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. St. John’s Palliative Care Services Program has been generously supported by the Archstone Foundation, who funded a two-year "Hospital-Based Palliative Care Services Innovation Project."
Initiating Palliative Care
Your physician has an important role in the decision to involve palliative care, and may initiate a consult with one of our palliative care physicians or ask a member of our team to meet with you. However, the choice is yours. We encourage you to talk with your physician regarding St. John’s palliative care services.
