West Virginia University Healthcare, which operates Berkeley Medical Center in Martinsburg and Jefferson Medical Center in Ranson, will now offer palliative healthcare, reports The Journal.
The hospital palliative healthcare program will be led by oncologist Terrence Reidy, MD.
Palliative healthcare is custom tailored medical care for patients with serious — though not necessarily imminently terminal — illnesses like cancer, congestive heart failure and Alzheimer's disease. The goal of palliative care is to reduce the symptoms and stress associated with serious illness.
"The most costly form of medicine is end of life care, and it shouldn't be," Alvin Moss, MD, who is on the faculty of the school of medicine at West Virginia University in Morgantown, said, according to the report. "And you shouldn't have to be dying to get really good healthcare."