The Palliative Medicine Consult Service functions as an inpatient consultation service in Jennie Sealy Hospital and TDCJ Hospital Galveston to provide ongoing consultations, support, and education to hospital professionals and patient families to improve the care of patients with advanced stages of illness. We seek to provide symptom management and relief from suffering, enhance communication about illness and death, and improve the quality of living for patients and their families. The team helps make recommendations for the coordination of care where needed and assist the primary healthcare team, patients, and families in the delivery of safe, excellent, compassionate, and seamless care throughout the continuum of treatment.
The Palliative Medicine Team also manages the Inpatient Hospice Service (GIP) in collaboration with three contracted Hospice companies. GIP may be initiated when the interdisciplinary group determines that the patient’s medical condition warrants a short-term inpatient stay for symptom management that cannot feasibly be provided in other settings.