Our Services

Palliative Care

For more information, contact:
Beaumont - St. Elizabeth: 409.899.7088
Port Arthur - St. Mary: 409.989.5595

Palliative care (pronounced pal-lee-uh-tiv) specializes in the relief of the pain, symptoms and stress for patients with a chronic, life threatening illness.

At CHRISTUS Hospital, the palliative care team treats both the patient and their family to provide:

• pain and symptom management
• empathetic listening and therapeutic communication
• advanced care planning (communication about disease process, medications, and treatment choices)
• education and resources about loss, the grief process, and ways to cope with declining health
• emotional and spiritual support
• practical support for patient and family as they navigate the health care system
• safety education (for family). We teach the family how to position patient in bed for comfort, transfer from bed to chair, gait belt use for stability.
• education to staff about palliative care
• assistance for physicians with time intensive discussions with the patient and their family to determine a patient-centered goal of care. (The average HMO allocates approximately 11 minutes per physician/patient visit)

Our goal is to improve quality of life for patients with a serious illness. This type of care involves a team of healthcare professionals to provide relief of physical, emotional and spiritual distress that may exist with declining health. Palliative care can be given along with curative treatment.

At CHRISTUS Hospital, palliative care is provided by teams of professionals that include physicians certified in palliative care, nurses trained in palliative care, social workers, spiritual care givers, pharmacists and case managers. Each team works in partnership with the patient’s primary doctor.

Palliative care aims to relieve symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, constipation, nausea, loss of appetite and difficulty sleeping. It helps patients cope with the physical, emotional and spiritual stressors that accompany any life threatening disease. It improves their ability to tolerate medical treatments, and helps clarify choices for care, as illness progresses. Overall, palliative care offers patients the best possible quality of life during their illness.

Palliative care benefits both patients and their families. Patient comfort is a primary goal. This includes physical, emotional and spiritual support for the entire family. It also clarifies treatment goals of the physician, defines patient centered goals and plan of care in language that the patient and family understand.

Palliative care is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Patients have a range of diseases and respond differently to treatment options. A key benefit of palliative care is that it customizes treatment to meet the needs of each individual person.

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Convenient, free parking is available at all CHRISTUS Hospital—St. Elizabeth and St. Mary locations, and complimentary valet parking is available at St. Elizabeth's main entrance.