The U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (2008) and the National Quality Forum defined palliative care as,
Patient and family-centered care that optimizes quality of life by anticipating, preventing, minimizing, and treating suffering. Palliative care throughout the continuum of illness involves addressing physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual needs and to facilitate patient autonomy, access to information, and choice. (p. 32,204)