New Jersey-based Valley Health System is partnering with Family of Caring Healthcare to offer palliative services to their patients.
Family of Caring Healthcare System includes 10 health and rehabilitation centers that provide subacute care and rehabilitative services, assisted living and long-term care. With this agreement, patients at Family of Caring’s Park Ridge, New Jersey, campus will be able to receive care from Valley Health’s palliative care teams.
“We are committed to empowering the residents of Family of Caring (Park Ridge), giving them agency to dictate their own care and to help them achieve the quality of life they deserve,” said Valley Health palliative care physician Dr. Ayelet Spitzer, in a statement. “Our service facilitates a seamless transition between the home, to the hospital, and back again.”
Valley Health’s palliative care model includes a full interdisciplinary team, including physicians, advanced practice nurses, social workers, chaplains and volunteers.
These teams provide medical decision-making assistance, pain and symptom management, emotional and spiritual support, care coordination and assistance with life-planning decisions, according to Yusimi Sobrino-Bonilla, clinical supervisor of palliative care services for Valley Health System.
Valley Health currently offers palliative care in a number of settings, including inpatient, outpatient, subacute medical facilities and the home.
“Palliative care offers our aging patient population a chance to live to the end, rather than solely planning for the end of life,” said Dr. Stefanos Pantagis, medical director at Family of Caring at Park Ridge. “We need to look at chronic illnesses in a way where we no longer exclusively focus on trying to cure the patient, but rather focus on helping these patients find a way to live to their fullest potential.”
