Exceptional Palliative Care for your Organization
MUSC palliative telehealth provides partner organizations with access to a palliative care provider who can help with pain and symptom management, advanced care planning, and supportive care for patients. The telehealth service is an extension of the same high-quality care patients receive during in-person visits with our specialists. The goal of palliative care is to improve quality of life for both the patient and family by:
- Improving pain and symptom management
- Reducing anxiety and depression
- Increasing patient and family satisfaction
Palliative Care services are available to anyone with a life-limiting or life-threatening condition and are appropriate at any age and any stage in a serious illness, and may parallel a curative treatment. Palliative care specialists treat many disease types and chronic illnesses, such as:
- Cancer
- Complex injuries, such as brain injuries
- Heart disease, such as congestive heart failure (CHF)
- Kidney disease
- Lung problems, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Memory problems such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease
- Neurological problems, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)
Benefits to our Partners:
Improves Quality of Care
- Higher Patient and Family Satisfaction: Palliative care was associated with statistically and clinically significant improvements in patient quality of life and symptom burden at 1 and 3 month follow ups. Palliative care was also associated with improvements in advance care planning, patient and caregiver satisfaction, and lower health care utilization. 1
- Decreased Pain & Suffering: 75% of patients with moderate or severe pain demonstrated clinically significant reductions in pain to mild or none after palliative care consultation. 2
- Longer Survival: Early integration of palliative care resulted in survival that was prolonged by approximately 2 months and clinically meaningful improvements in quality of life and mood.“11.6 months vs. 8.9 months, P = 0.020.” 3
Cost Savings
- Reduces costs per admission: Palliative care consultation was associated with a reduction in direct hospital costs of almost $1700 per admission ($174 per day) for live discharges and almost $5000 per admission ($374 per day) for patients who expired, including significant reductions in pharmacy, laboratory, and intensive care unit costs when compared with usual care patients. 4
- Earlier consultation decreases costs: Palliative care within 6 days is estimated to reduce direct costs by 14%when compared with no intervention, and care within 2 days is estimated to reduce costs by 24% when compared with no intervention. 5
At this time, scheduled palliative telehealth consultations are available Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m., through a service contract with the MUSC palliative telehealth program. The Duke Endowment awarded MUSC a $1.27 million grant to create a statewide Palliative Care Telehealth program and has provided subsidies for three years for this service. By year three, we are aiming to provide 24/7 palliative telemedicine coverage. To learn more about the MUSC Palliative Telehealth Service, please contact 843-792-5776 or palliativetelehealth@musc.edu