Portland, Ore. — The Regence Foundation recently awarded $23,300 to Rogue Valley Medical Center and $20,600 to Providence Medford Medical Center to develop hospital-based palliative care programs. Palliative care is a medical specialty geared toward helping seriously ill patients find relief from the symptoms of their disease. Currently there are no formal hospital-based palliative care programs in Southern Oregon.

“Most people associate palliative care with hospice, but palliative care extends well beyond hospice to anyone who needs help managing the pain and symptoms of a serious disease,” said Michael Alexander, Regence Foundation board chair. “Hospitals are a critical resource for patients who need help with symptom management, and ensuring palliative care is available to patients earlier in the disease process is a priority for The Regence Foundation. We’d like to recognize Providence and Asante for their work in this important area, and for making this a priority in the community.”

The grants will help the hospitals develop and begin planning their palliative care programs. In addition staff from both hospitals will attend a Palliative Care Leadership Center (PCLC) training in Portland, Oregon. PCLC is a national training and mentoring initiative to help hospitals start and expand high-quality palliative care programs.

“We awarded palliative care grants to two local hospitals because it’s a service that’s missing from the Southern Oregon community,” continued Alexander. “Relief from pain and suffering is one of the most important components of patient care, and it should be available to every patient who needs it.”

The grants are part of The Regence Foundation’s Sojourns grantmaking program to promote to promote palliative care services in hospitals and in the community. Through Sojourns, The Foundation aims to foster best practices, leadership and collaboration that help people with life-threatening and incurable illness to access quality palliative care in their own community.