David E. Zullo PACCT Program

Palliative care is an interdisciplinary, team-approach to providing expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support tailored to the patients' needs and wishes. The patient's family and loved ones are also supported.

The overarching goal of the David E. Zullo Pediatric Palliative Care (PACCT) Program is to offer continuity of care from diagnosis throughout the trajectory of the illness. There are no other programs that offer these services in our community. Our nurses, counselors, physicians and other specialists provide care in all settings - hospital, clinic and home - and are available 24 hours a day in case of emergencies.

Our team empowers patients and families to make treatment decisions based on the families' needs, desires and best interests. They are not forced to choose between end-of-life care and curative treatment due to hospice policies or out of financial need due to insurance limitations. Our patients and families do not have to worry about lengthy referral processes and the stress involved with contracting and readjusting to a new set of caregivers.

The David E. Zullo Pediatric Palliative Care Program (PACCT) recently received a significant award from Children's Hospice International. Two of the PACCT team members (Christine Call-Sternberg and Donna Plaxe) traveled to Singapore in September to receive the award in person. This international recognition is a sign of the great and necessary work that the PACCT program is able to accomplish.

To learn more about our PACCT program, please click here.