New Palliative Care Programs Help Improve Lives

Vicki McMahon is helping elderly patients live more comfortably in their last years of life through a position leading the palliative care program at .

As adds its own palliative care program this month, McMahon of Swissvale is happy to see the medical community begin to shift its approach on end of life care.

Rather than making multiple trips to the hospital or emergency room, more people dealing with chronic illness will have their symptoms managed in a better way, she said.

“It’s all about giving people the best quality of life that they can have,” she said. “That’s what the goal is with palliative care.”

McMahon was hired by Cedars Of Monroeville to start its palliative care program this past March. Palliative care services focus on improving the quality of life of people facing serious and chronic illness. Patients can receive palliative care throughout their illness trajectory, even while receiving life-prolonging treatments.

She also said many people do not realize the main differences between hospice care and palliative.

“I think most hospice programs want to have a palliative care program because there is only a certain amount of time that someone really is a hospice candidate,” McMahon said. “There’s a whole other part of time, the year or so before they pass on, that they are having to deal with their illness, whether it be symptoms of shortness of breath, pain or anxiety.”

Palliative care programs connect patients and families with information about their options for treatments, while addressing emotional needs and more. At the same time, those patients still receive the treatment they need, including chemotherapy to shrink a tumor to alleviate pressure and pain.

Cedars offers hospice, in-home care and a facility for those issues, in addition to its new palliative care program.

“People don’t always have to spend days in the hospital and the push nowadays is for people to be well-informed about their options because sometimes, what they go through in the hospital can add even more pain,” she said. “It helps them to improve the quality of life. Sometimes if they go to the hospital, their pain or their symptoms aren’t even controlled.”

McMahon also went on to expand palliative care’s definition to include a group of medical workers, social workers, psychologists, doctors and spiritual counselors that work together with a primary care physician to help achieve the best possible solution for the patient and families.

“It takes a lot of time to explain a disease, what could happen, find out what the patient thinks, and a lot of physicians don’t have the time to do that,” McMahon said. “That’s why with palliative care, there is a team.”

Highmark also has a program called Advanced Illness Services that is in essence, palliative care. Patients get 10 lifetime visits that can be from a social worker who can answer questions, a nurse practitioner who can help people to get more sleep at night, or others.

“They’re not on hospice and they want to care for themselves and be pain free,” McMahon said. “In that scenario, they can still go to the hospital if they need to. It’s a great program because it’s trying to help them.”

McMahon said that program also is exciting because it has preempted the way society typically wants people to go during end of life care.

“It’s getting their families involved now rather than later,” McMahon said.

Cedars has worked with Forbes Regional Hospital to help people and patients who need assistance in managing symptoms and pain.

“We work together as a team in one respect to help the patients and get them to the appropriate place in the hospice center,” she said. “The palliative care in the hospital will involve consultation for palliative care and addressing that.”

With Cedars palliative care program, soon McMahon will also be able to see people in their own homes.

“It’s about having everyone on board - your mom, dad, brothers and sisters agreeing because that’s what your mom or dad wants in the end,” McMahon said. “It’s a way to help the person live the best life they can with a serious illness.”