Palliative Care

Palliative care refers to treatments that focus on patients’ preferences for comfort not cure, with the goal to improve patients’ quality of life. The Columbia University School of Nursing recently received NIH funding to develop a Center focused on improving palliative care for vulnerable adults with multiple chronic conditions (MCC), defined as two or more co-occurring chronic conditions. In these patients, MMC often occur in vulnerable adult patients such as those living in nursing homes or with end-stage renal disease. These individuals have worse health outcomes and higher utilization of all types of health services compared to those who do not have chronic conditions, and they are at higher risk of receiving inappropriate and/or burdensome services (e.g., procedures, treatments, and hospitalizations) that are inconsistent with their preferences. There are knowledge gaps in key palliative care areas including how best to support symptom management, communication, and care coordination; these knowledge gaps must be addressed to provide effective innovative interdisciplinary care models in multiple health care settings for vulnerable adult patients with MCC to ensure they receive appropriate care that is consistent with their preferences.