Laura Farless, MD, director of the Steward Center for Palliative Care, and Jennifer Fournier, APRN-CNS, Clinical Special Services Manager of the Nancy N. & J.C. Lewis Cancer & Research Pavilion, were recognized at last week’s Georgia Medical Society’s annual Health Heroes awards dinner for their leadership in successfully integrating outpatient palliative care into a cancer center in our community.

Together, Farless and Fournier have created a multi-disciplinary team consisting of a physician, advance practice nurses, nurse navigators, social workers, dieticians and chaplain who have all specifically trained in palliative care. These specialists provide expert management of distressing symptoms such as pain, nausea, shortness of breath, anxiety and depression, while attending to the emotional, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual needs of the patient and the family.

Palliation (relief of symptoms) should always be an important part of patient care along the patient care trajectory - regardless of whether the patient has just received a diagnosis, is in active treatment, or has completed their treatment regimen. Dr. Farless and Ms. Fournier’s team provides continuous, effective communication with both the patient and his or her family to ensure that goals are mutually set and understood by the multidisciplinary team, the patient and his or her family. The team discusses issues such as artificial feeding and hydration, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and any other measure that may impact patient’s quality of life. The patient’s understanding of the disease process is thoroughly assessed with a discussion of patient preferences for disease management.

Satisfaction surveys have been completed by outpatient palliative care patients since the inception of the clinic in June 2012. All respondents over this time would recommend this palliative care clinic to their friends and family with 84% rating the clinic as “9” or “10” on a 0-10 scale. Comments such as “The clinic has helped me to live a normal life again.” and “This is the best there is.” were written by the patients on these surveys.