Scripps Mercy Hospital brings the pioneering lessons of hospice care into the acute care hospital setting, to improve quality of life and decrease suffering for patients with serious, life-limiting illness, and to support their families.

The palliative care approach looks at five fields that can significantly affect how a patient feels:

• Physical
• Psychological
• Social
• Spiritual
• Cultural

Though palliative care may address end of life issues, it aims to complement therapies that reduce or cure illness, rather than exclude them.

Palliative care services provides the following expert clinical consultation services:

• Management of pain and symptoms such as dyspnea (breathing difficulty), nausea and vomiting, and delirium

• Psychosocial, emotional and spiritual support

• Assistance clarifying the goals of care, resuscitation status and ethical issues

Close coordination with nursing, pharmacy, case management, social work, behavioral health, rehabilitation services, wound care specialists, chaplaincy, the volunteer service, the ethics committee and patient relations is provided on all in-patient units. The service offers education in palliative and hospice medicine to all disciplines.

Our palliative care team includes an attending physician, a nurse practitioner and, frequently, a fellow in hospice and palliative medicine and other medical personnel in training. Inpatient services are offered, as well as limited services through a half-day outpatient clinic at Mercy Clinic.

The service is closely associated with the Center for Palliative Studies at San Diego Hospice and Palliative Care, as well as with the Scripps Cancer Center .