Patients who are in need of palliative care and extra symptom management as they recover from being critically ill or are nearing end of life can now take advantage of the services at NYC Health + Hosptial's Bellvue location, which opened a new "serenity unit" for this type of care.
The unit opened March 7, according to a news release shared with Becker's. It features a staff of physician specialists, nurse practitioners, bedside nurses, social workers and a chaplain. Patients can access inpatient end-of-life care, inpatient consultations, pediatric palliative care consultations, an outpatient palliative care clinic, a bereavement program as well as services from a volunteer doula program.
"We created the Serenity Unit because we noted an increasing number of patients either spending their dying days at the hospital or in need of extra support and symptom management expertise that palliative care provides," Susan Cohen, MD, director of the palliative care program at NYC Health + Hospitals Bellevue stated in the release.
"We help people cope with the changes that a serious illness brings," she added. "We make sure we're taking the best care of patients we can, even when it's something that we can't cure."