She went to Mike Shirk, the president of Boone Hospital Center. He told her she needed a medical director. Mike Shirk is a very good administrator. He said, I don't' have to be the medical director. And she knows, if that's what it took to relieve suffering, that's what this doctor would do.
Love is the meaning of it all.
Boone's palliative-care team includes pain specialists, social workers, hospital chaplains and alternative practitioners of music therapy and Healing Touch, a technique that involves laying on hands. Doctors are encouraged to consult the team if they think their patient might die within a year. Their goal is to maximize comfort when a cure becomes out of reach. When Dorreen is consulted, everything is patient-centered. The first thing she wants to know is what an individual understands about his or her condition.