Portland, Ore. — The Regence Foundation recently awarded $12,500 to St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, part of the Cascade Healthcare Community, to develop a formal hospital-based palliative care program. St. Charles recently hired Dr. Laura Mavity, a palliative care doctor, to lead its palliative care program, and the grant will build on the work Dr. Mavity has already started. Palliative care is a medical specialty geared toward helping seriously ill patients find relief from the symptoms of their disease.

“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 St. Charles for its work in this important area, and for making this a priority in the community.”

The Foundation grant to St. Charles is to help the hospital formalize its palliative care program. In addition, staff from the hospital 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.

“At St. Charles, our priority is patient care, and making sure patients have access to palliative care services to ease their pain and suffering is important,” said Dr. Laura Mavity, who was recently hired to lead St. Charles Bend’s palliative care program. “At this point, this is the only hospital-based palliative care program in Central Oregon, so this grant is very valuable to our community. We hope to expand formal palliative care programs to our sister hospitals in Redmond and Prineville soon.”

The grant is part of The Regence Foundation’s Sojourns™ grantmaking program to promote hospital- and community-based palliative care services. 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.