The Palliative Care Services Team exists to improve the quality of care and service experienced by patients and their families throughout the hospital, focusing on patients with life-limiting complex illness and pain and symptom control needs. The team does this through an interdisciplinary consult service that assists the hospital team and the attending physicians in managing complex patient care and patient and family communication and care planning needs. These services are supplemental to, and coordinated with, existing hospital support departments such as care management and discharge planning.

Each team member has a role in direct patient care, and in systems improvements that will assist in identifying patients with palliative care needs, as well as improving the consistency with which palliative care is provided throughout the hospital. The team and each of its members will be proactive in identifying opportunities to use patient, family, physician, and hospital resources more effectively through reduction in redundant or ineffective services and creative identification of ways to better meet patient needs throughout the continuum of care, including home care.