Page 15 - Focus March 2018

| Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Palliative care beyond the hospital
In recent years, Christiana Care has accelerated its educational efforts to move palliative care beyond the hospital and outpatient Graham Cancer Center.
Christiana Care is now spreading palliative care to non-cancer outpatient settings, including through the Community-based Supportive and Palliative Care team.
Linsey D. O’Donnell, D.O., is the medical director of this program, which uses strategic partnerships with The Medical Group and other Christiana Care outpatient services to help patients gain access to expert palliative care.
Linsey D. O’Donnell, D.O.
In the Heart Failure Program, for example, that often means helping the growing number of heart attack survivors to maximize their quality of life, said Sourin Banerji, M.D., medical director of Advanced Heart Failure and Mechanical Circulatory Support. While Dr. Banerji is focusing
on stabilizing his patients’ health, the palliative care team is helping patients identify their care goals and uncovering potential roadblocks to their quality of life and develop an advanced care plan.
In order to offer palliative care services to those who can benefit most, Christiana Care is developing a predictive tool to determine which heart failure patients face the highest risk for progression.
Christiana Care is now spreading palliative care to non-cancer outpatient settings, including through the use of strategic partnerships with the ambulatory care practices at Wilmington Hospital and other primary and specialty programs.
Sourin Banerji, M.D.
“The program has also partnered closely with Carelink CareNow and Christiana Care’s Visiting Nurse Association so palliative care can be extended to those patients,” Dr. Maheshwari said. “Our strategy is to expand, both to cancer and community-based programs, as we meet the needs of an aging community with an increasing burden of chronic disease.”
For Dr. Guerry, the heart of palliative care is aligning the patient’s experience with their goals and values.
“We want to have these conversations in the community, where patients want to have them, before a crisis occurs,” she said. 
Members of the Graham Cancer Center’s Supportive and Palliative Care Team visit with a patient. From left, Kenneth Trzepkowski, M.D., medical director; Peter Morrow, MSW, senior social worker; George Billings, MDiv, BCC, chaplain; Shirley Brogley, ACHPN, ANP-BC, nurse practitioner; and Tammy Layer, MSN, RN, OCN, nurse navigator.
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