Palliative care is designed to relieve suffering and provide the best possible quality of life for people facing the pain, symptoms, and stresses of serious illness. Palliative care is appropriate at any age and stage of an illness, and can be provided along with curative treatments. The resources below demonstrate the benefits of palliative care and provide practical tools to develop or improve a palliative care program in any setting.

General Resources

Early Palliative Care for Patients with Metastatic Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer
Study documenting that early palliative care led to significant improvements in both quality of life and mood. (New England Journal of Medicine)

Increased Satisfaction with Care and Lower Costs: Results of a Randomized Trial of In-Home Palliative Care (PDF)
Study documenting greater patient satisfaction and lower utilization. (Journal of the American Geriatric Society)

Palliative Care Consultation Teams Cut Hospital Costs for Medicaid Beneficiaries
Study documenting the impact of palliative care team consultations on lowering hospital costs in accordance with patient wishes. (Health Affairs)

Improving Palliative Care in the ICU, Emergency Medicine, and Outpatient Setting (membership required)
Website with a comprehensive suite of improvement tools, patient and family resources, reference libraries, and research resources. (The iPAL Project, an initiative of the Center to Advance Palliative Care)

Community-Based Palliative Care (CBPC) Resource Center
This resource center provides strategies and support for organizations that are planning, implementing, or enhancing a CBPC program. (California Health Care Foundation)

For Further Reading

Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care, 4th Edition
Guidelines that serve as a blueprint to create new palliative care programs and to guide developing ones; specifically, the guidelines promote quality palliative care, foster consistent and high standards in palliative care, and encourage continuity of care across settings. (National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care)

Coalition for Compassionate Care of California
Website with resources on advance care planning and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST). (Coalition for Compassionate Care)

California Health Care Foundation
Read more about palliative care elsewhere on our website.