Palliative Care - Pediatric
The Kentucky Children’s Hospital Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT) provides palliative care services for both the children with a serious illness and their families. Palliative care focuses on improving quality of life and relieving symptoms for patients with serious illnesses. Patients can continue to receive care that will cure their illness and extend their life at the same time they are using palliative care services.
Our PACT service consists of physicians, a registered nurse, nurse practitioner and a social worker. We share resources with the broader UK HealthCare system including chaplains, child life, bereavement, nutrition and ethics. We offer consults for patients at the request of the patient, family or health care provider.
The goals of PACT include:
- Assisting families with decision-making and goals of care.
- Relieving pain and other symptoms.
- Promoting communication with families.
- Facilitating continuity during multiple admissions.
- Providing emotional, social, spiritual and bereavement services.
- Improving complex care for children in the hospital or at home.
How we work
When the patient, family or health care team requests a PACT consult, our team will meet with the family and the health care providers. We ask the family members about their goals and wishes and also about their worries and concerns. We determine how the PACT services can help them meet their goals, and we make recommendations to the health care team.
What we provide
- Good communication with the family and the health care team.
- Inpatient visits with the child and family.
- Recommendations for pain and symptom management.
- Assistance for families making difficult decisions about their child.
- Support during transition from the hospital to home, or to a hospice or other facility.
- Follow-up communication and support after discharge.
Patient appointments
Request an appointment online.
Referrals
Health care providers, please visit our referral page to refer your patient to this service.
Email: pact@uky.edu.
Phone: 859-227-6082
Resources
Patient story: Lauren and Brian Johnson
Lauren and Brian Johnson were expecting a new baby brother for their son, Clay. Their unborn baby had been diagnosed with a critical congenital heart defect called pulmonary atresia with VSD. The couple talk about how Pediatric Palliative Care helped them navigate a difficult situation.
Helpful links
GetPalliativeCare.org - What Is Pediatric Palliative Care?
Courageous Parents Network - Pediatric Supportive Care/Palliative Care
