How Do I Find a Palliative Doctor?

Palliative care focuses on improving the quality of life for patients who have a serious illness, as well as helping their families cope. The main goal is to make the patient comfortable throughout the illness and provide support with healthcare, pain management and communication. Palliative care is provided by a team of doctors, nurses and specialists such as massage therapists and nutritionists and can begin at any point during a person's illness. Choosing the right team leader is extremely important to ensure quality of life.

Instructions

• 1

  Talk to your doctor. Before you can start palliative care, you need to talk to your own physician who can give you a referral to a palliative care doctor. Be sure to tell your doctor what you hope to get from a palliative care doctor--aggressive treatment of pain symptoms, location of treatments, etc. Tell your doctor what treatments you may want to try and which ones you may not. Obtain from your doctor your full medical history so you can provide this to the palliative care doctor.

• 2

  Find a hospital that provides palliative care. Your family doctor may be able to provide you with palliative care doctors in your area. You can go to the website getpalliativecare.org; this site lists all palliative care providers and hospitals for each state based on programs listed in the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey. Each hospital reference includes contact information and some have links to the hospital's palliative care website.

• 3

  Meet with the palliative care team. Once you have found a palliative care doctor and team, meet with them first before starting any type of treatment. Ask where your care will be provided and meet all the members of the team. Be clear about what you expect to get out of the treatment as well as what expectations team members have for you. Make sure the lines of communication between the palliative care doctor and your regular physician will remain open and that each has access to the other.