Consultation Etiquette Challenges Palliative Care To Be on Its Best Behavior

THE MOST COMMON MODEL for the growing num-ber of palliative care programs introduced into U.S. hospitals in recent years is the consul-tation service, typically a multidisciplinary team that may include physicians, nurses, social work-ers, pharmacists, and/or chaplains. The palliative care service responds to requests from physicians and other colleagues for assistance with pain and symptom management, establishment of goals of care and associated treatment decisions, advance care planning, and other issues related to living with serious illness. Working with consultants is familiar to most physicians, with a range of medical specialists commonly called upon to offer advice on how to deal with a variety of patient care issues. Con-