VCU news

By Pamela DiSalvo Lepley

Richmond, Va. - The Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center announced today that the Thomas Palliative Care Foundation has donated all of its assets for the establishment of the Thomas Palliative Care Fund at the VCU Massey Cancer Center. 

The gift, worth about $500,000 in current and endowed funds, will be used �to bring palliative care at the Massey Cancer Center to the next level," said Barbara Hughes, Thomas Palliative Care Foundation president.  "This gift agreement is the culmination of a lot of good work that we know will continue at the palliative care unit."

The VCU Massey Cancer Center palliative care program began in 2000 as a joint project of the Thomas Hospice Foundation and the VCU Medical Center to establish the Thomas Palliative Care Unit.  The program is acknowledged as a leader in palliative care, treating about 500 patients a year, conducting groundbreaking research and setting new standards of care in pain management and symptom control.  The palliative care program also has proven to be cost efficient, reducing the cost of care while providing better symptom control. 

"The members of the Thomas Palliative Care Foundation are pioneers in hospice and palliative care in Central Virginia, and helped to create the expectation that the end of life could be symptom free, occur at home, and have importance and meaning," said Dr. Thomas Smith, medical director of the Massey Cancer Center Thomas Palliative Care Unit and chair of VCU's Division of Hematology/Oncology and Palliative Care.  "This grant will enable us to do innovative research into better care, as well as help to provide services to all."

VCU's Massey Cancer Center recently was chosen one of six national Palliative Care Leadership Centers by the Center to Advance Palliative Care (www.capc.org), a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  VCU's palliative care program will teach other cancer centers the optimal way to provide treatment aimed at relieving pain and symptoms as part of state-of-the-art cancer care.  The first training sessions are scheduled for late February. 

The 11-bed Thomas Palliative Care Unit at the VCU Medical Center is staffed by an interdisciplinary team of specialists, including internists, medical and radiation oncologists, geriatricians, pulmonologists, infectious disease experts, nurses, social workers, chaplains, clergy and administrators, and uses a set of palliative care guidelines for the most common conditions, including pain and delirium.

Palliative care is a rapidly growing field, specializing in treating the pain and suffering of seriously ill patients in order to maximize quality of life.  Research shows that a majority of patients with cancer and other serious illnesses suffer pain and discomfort despite the fact that their symptoms can be treated safely and effectively.