Palliative care helps ease pain and suffering for patients with life-threatening illnesses
SEATTLE – The Regence Foundation recently awarded $100,000 to Evergreen Hospital in Kirkland to support its innovative program to extend palliative care beyond the hospital setting to nursing homes and residential settings. Palliative care is a medical specialty geared toward helping seriously ill patients find relief from the symptoms of their disease.
“When patients with serious illness talk about the kind of care and support they want, they often describe palliative care,” said Kieren Porter, Regence Foundation board chair. “The Regence Foundation seeks to increase awareness of the benefits of palliative care among patients and their families, as well as the medical community. Hospitals are a key component in making this type of care available to patients at any stage of diagnosis.”
The Foundation grant supports Evergreen Hospital’s program to increase both the medical community and the public awareness and education about the patient benefits of palliative care. The grant also allows the hospital to increase staffing and to serve more patients with aggressive symptom management for people with complex, life-threatening conditions.
“We believe people should have access to palliative care in whatever setting they find most appropriate for them, not just in hospitals,” said Bob Malte, CEO of Evergreen Hospital. “The Regence Foundation grant will help increase awareness and education of palliative care for medical staff, and make palliative care more available to people in the Western Washington communities we serve.”
The grant is part of The Regence Foundation’s Sojourns grant-making program to promote hospital- and community-based palliative care services. Through Sojourns, The Foundation aims to foster best practices, leadership and collaboration that help people with life-threatening and incurable illness to access quality palliative care in their own community.
About The Regence Foundation
The Regence Foundation is the corporate foundation of Regence, the largest health insurer in the Northwest/Intermountain region and a nonprofit independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. A 501(c)3 grant-making organization, the Foundation partners with organizations driving significant change in health care delivery and accessibility in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington. Through its Sojourns program, the Foundation also supports organizations advancing quality palliative and end-of-life care. For more information visit www.RegenceFoundation.org or www.twitter.com/RegenceGives.