When people first meet Northside Hospital palliative medicine physician Dr. Carrie Stallings, they often have the same question: What is palliative care?
“It really is just specialized medical care for anyone with a serious illness,” Dr. Stallings said.
She explained that palliative care focuses on relieving symptoms and stress while improving quality of life for both patients and their loved ones.
“Our goals are to provide relief from symptoms and the stress of the illness, to improve quality of life for the patient himself or herself, and also for the patient’s family,” she said. “Because with serious illness, we know that the patient is not going through it alone.”
An interdisciplinary team approach
Palliative care differs from other specialties because of its team-based approach.
“One thing that makes palliative care different than like cardiology or pulmonology is that we’re an interdisciplinary team,” Dr. Stallings said. The team may include doctors, nurses, social workers and chaplains who work together “to provide an extra layer of support.”
That support addresses the full range of challenges that come with serious illness. Dr. Stallings said palliative care teams focus on treating the whole person and their family.
Palliative care may include:
- Pain management: Treating physical symptoms like pain, including complex cancer pain
- Symptom relief: Including managing nausea, vomiting, fatigue, constipation, shortness of breath, loss of appetite and sleep problems
- Emotional and mental health support: Addressing mental health symptoms like anxiety and mood symptoms, recognizing how closely symptoms are connected
- Care coordination: Coordinating between different teams, inpatient, outpatient, and working alongside other specialists to ensure care aligns with the patient’s goals
- Support for patients and families: Recognizing that loved ones are deeply affected and often involved in decision-making
- Spiritual and cultural support: Considering spiritual and religious preferences and how that can affect what things you may want and not want from the health care space
Palliative care can begin at any point in a serious illness — even at diagnosis.
“It can be provided alongside treatment with curative intent,” Dr. Stallings said.
That means patients can receive palliative care while undergoing treatment for cancer, heart failure or other conditions.
Much of Dr. Stallings’ work focuses on managing symptoms that affect daily life.
“We see a lot of complex pain from cancers,” she said, as well as fatigue, constipation, nausea and loss of appetite.
Palliative care also includes emotional support and guidance for difficult decisions.
“We’re treating the whole patient,” she said, helping identify “what someone’s goals are, and then how can we as a health care team best help meet those goals.”
How palliative care differs from hospice
One of the biggest misconceptions is that palliative care and hospice are the same.
“Hospice care is part of palliative care for sure, but palliative care does encompass a lot more,” Dr. Stallings said.
Hospice is specifically for people with limited life expectancy who choose to focus on comfort rather than curative treatment.
“In that case, they choose to focus more on quality of life and enjoying that time that they have,” she said.
Palliative care, however, is appropriate much earlier.
“And care near the end of life is part of what we do,” Dr. Stallings said. “But it’s not always why I’m being consulted in the hospital.”
Instead, the focus is on helping people live as well as possible while facing serious illness.
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References:
- Gelfman, Laura P., Moritz Blum, Modele O. Ogunniyi, Colleen K. McIlvennan, Dio Kavalieratos, and Larry A. Allen. “Palliative Care Across the Spectrum of Heart Failure.” JACC: Heart Failure 12, no. 6 (June 2024): 973–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jchf.2024.01.010.
- UCLA Health. “Advance Care Planning: What Is ACP?” Accessed January 30, 2026. https://www.uclahealth.org/programs/advance-care-planning/what-acp.
- Academy of Medical-Surgical Nurses. “Palliative Care.” Accessed January 30, 2026. https://amsn.org/Practice-Resources/Medical-Surgical-Monitor/Article/palliative-care.
- Center to Advance Palliative Care. “About Palliative Care.” Accessed January 30, 2026. https://www.capc.org/about/palliative-care/.
