Ampliando nuestra oferta de servicios para abordar mejor las necesidades de nuestros pacientes

Healing Care Hospice has been offering hospice services in Los Angeles and Orange Counties since 2014. We are proud to announce that we recently expanded our service offering by adding Supportive Palliative Care. Accordingly, we have changed our name to Healing Care Hospice & Palliative.

Supportive Palliative Care Under Contract with Optum Health

Under contract with Optum Health, Healing Care provides Supportive Palliative Care to Optum patients in Los Angeles County. Supportive Palliative Care differs greatly from hospice care and addresses different patient needs.

The Role of Palliative Care

With palliative care, patients are dealing with serious illnesses, or with multiple chronic conditions, but their primary condition has not advanced to the degree that it would be considered end-stage. As such, palliative care provides an additional layer of care to the support that the patient is already receiving, with the hope that this additional layer can help reduce barriers to care, increase access to care at home, and address exacerbations timely before they trigger a hospitalization.

Nurse Practitioner Involvement in Palliative Care

With this program, a nurse practitioner (NP) visits the patient in their home about once or twice a month. The NP can address any symptoms that are present by prescribing medications or adjusting the patient’s medications; the NP can submit an order for a specialist appointment, which our office puts into the system to obtain timely approval; and the NP can order labs, home health, or medical equipment. These services are already available through the patient’s health plan, however, palliative care expedites, coordinates, and oversees their delivery and efficacy.

Vocational Nurses’ Role in Palliative Care

Additionally, vocational nurses stationed in our Downey offices reach out to patients once or twice a month to review their medications, check to see if they have any issues, and help the patient or family with requests, such as ordering medication refills or making appointments with their Primary Care Provider (PCP) or specialists.

The Importance of Decision Support in Palliative Care

A critical aspect of palliative care is for the NP to spend ample time with each patient to ensure that the patient and family fully understand the nature and progression of the patient’s disease process and the options that the patient has available for treatment. This decision support is an important aspect of palliative care as multiple studies have shown that patients and families often do not understand their disease process and make decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate information that was explained to them in haste.

Advance Care Planning and Discussing Hospice Care

Lastly, palliative care NPs undertake advance care planning and discuss hospice care when the time is appropriate.