PORTLAND, Ore. — The Regence Foundation announced today it has made eight palliative care grants to hospitals in Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington totaling more than $1.5 million. The grants are to help recipients implement hospital-based palliative care programs. Palliative care is a medical specialty geared toward helping seriously ill patients find relief from the symptoms of their disease.

"Most people associate palliative care with hospice, but it extends well beyond that to anyone who needs help managing the pain and symptoms of a serious disease," said Kieren Porter, Regence Foundation board chair. "Ensuring that palliative care is available to patients earlier in the disease process is a priority for The Regence Foundation, and hospitals are critical resources for making that care available to patients."

The grant will fund the hospital’s implementation of the interdisciplinary plan it developed in 2010 with the help of a Regence Foundation grant that included training through the Palliative Care Leadership Center (PCLC), a national training and mentoring initiative to help hospitals start and expand high-quality palliative care programs.

Hospital recipients include:

• Dixie Regional Medical Center (St. George, UT) $247,000
• Evergreen Hospital Medical Center (Kirkland, WA) $100,000
• Overlake Hospital Medical Center (Bellevue, WA) $150,000
• Providence Centralia Hospital (Centralia, WA) $166,000
• St. John Medical Center (Longview, WA) $238,000
• St. Joseph Regional Medical Center (Lewiston, ID) $124,000
• Salem Hospital (Salem, OR) $250,000
• Rogue Valley Medical Center (Medford, OR) $238,000

The grants are part of The Regence Foundation’s Sojourns™ grantmaking program to promote palliative care services in hospitals and in the community. Through Sojourns™, The Foundation aims to foster best practices, leadership and collaboration that help people with life-threatening and incurable illness to access quality palliative care in their own community.