New York, NY – In a new partnership with the HHC Foundation of New York City, the Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc. reinforces its commitment to improve the health care and overall quality of life for the elderly of New York City with its support of a new Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care (DPMPC) at Metropolitan Hospital Center, a member of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC). The grant award of $200,000 from Samuels Foundation marks the first time the organization has partnered with the HHC Foundation, which raises funds to support the mission of the HHC.

Samuels Foundation’s Program Officer Lauren Green Weisenfeld states "we are excited at the potential of this partnership. This is an incredible opportunity to help bring much needed and often overlooked palliative care services to the most vulnerable in New York City.”

The newly formed Palliative Care Department at Metropolitan is part of a system wide effort at HHC to support and develop palliative care services for patients and families who face the challenges of life-threatening or terminal illness. HHC’s palliative care initiative was initially launched in the fall of 2006 with seed funding from the HHC Foundation. While each of HHC’s 11 acute care hospitals practices some aspects of palliative care, all are in the process of building comprehensive programs to fully meet patients’ needs. Palliative care options stress dignity and comfort in the context of a more holistic approach to a dying patient's medical, psychological and spiritual needs. Palliative care is not limited solely to terminally ill patients but may also, focus on management of symptoms such as uncontrolled pain, dyspnea, and delirium. Controlling symptoms in advanced progressive disease allows patients and their caregivers the best quality of life possible with less suffering.

While Metropolitan’s DPMPC treats patients of all ages, consistent with national and city-wide trends, the hospital’s patient population is also gradually aging and the hospital is planning for increased numbers of geriatric patients in the future. In an age where people are living longer, the need for palliative care services is steadily increasing. Key elements of palliative care include medical interventions to alleviate physical suffering; a comprehensive culturally-sensitive approach to patients’ overall well-being, including physiological, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of care; and recognition that life-threatening disease affects not only the distressed patient but also family, loved ones and caregivers.

“Metropolitan’s DPMPC, the first of its kind in a public institution, is poised to become a model for public hospitals across the country.” says Meryl Weinberg, Executive Director of Metropolitan Hospital Center. “This grant is going to have a substantial impact on our ability to launch this program on solid footing.”

The program, a 24/7 consult service and an ambulatory care pain medicine and palliative care clinic will be directed by Lauren Shaiova, MD, a leading practitioner of palliative care who most recently served as an attending in the Palliative Care Department at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. An inter-disciplinary clinical team staffs the program which will 1) Address the needs of an increasing aging population; 2) Address new quality of care standards; 3) Enhance clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction and 4) Increase access of underserved populations to palliative care.

About The Samuels Foundation

The mission of the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation’s health care program is to improve the health care and overall quality of life for the elderly of New York City. Samuels Foundation measures its success by the positive impact that the program has on people's lives. To learn more about the Samuels Foundation, visit their website at http://www.samuels.org.