Center to Advance Palliative Care

It is not necessary that every hospice patient be seen by palliative care. In fact, it might be wise to try to distinguish the 2 services as much as possible. If referring clinicians see the pc service simply as "pre-hospice," they are less likely to make other kinds of referrals. The PC service will have difficulty moving "upstream," seeing patients earlier during the course of illness or earlier during the hospitalization. A robust pc service will have a diversity of referrals, including both chronic and terminal illness, symptom management, communication, and goals of care referrals. Best, Michael W. Rabow, MD, Associate Director, UCSF Palliative Care Leadership Center