University Times

UPMC has announced a formal affiliation with Family Hospice and Palliative Care, a not-for-profit community-based hospice center. Under the agreement, UPMC, through its Palliative and Supportive Institute (PSI), will provide physicians, training and technical support to Family Hospice as part of a broader effort to help patients and families facing serious illness.

Hospice care is designed to provide comfort and support to patients and their loved ones when a life-limiting illness no longer responds to curative measures.

Palliative care is specialized medical care for the seriously ill, focused on providing patients with relief from the symptoms, pain and stress of their illnesses. Palliative care often can be provided along with curative treatments, and can help improve patients’ ability to tolerate medical interventions.

Within their last six months of life, more than 70 percent of Medicare recipients are hospitalized more than once. In western Pennsylvania, more than one quarter of Medicare recipients die in the hospital and most of these patients spend at least 11 days in the hospital during their final months, according to Denise Stahl, executive director of UPMC PSI.

“We know we can have great impact on the quality of care patients receive and the experience of serious illness,” Stahl said.