Patients receiving palliative care are not always near the end of life. Palliative care focuses on comfort when cure is not possible. Palliative care treats the person, not the disease. Palliative care includes the entire family, not just the patient, in its plan of care.
Palliative care emphasizes quality, rather than length of life.
It affirms life and regards dying as a normal process. It neither hastens nor postpones death. Palliative care is available wherever the patient is, whenever it is needed. Services are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No one will be denied services due to lack of insurance coverage or inability to pay.