Refer patients with serious, life-limiting conditions to the Hummingbird Program for pediatric palliative care. Learn more.
Who we serve
The Hummingbird Program provides palliative care to children with serious, life-limiting conditions, from the perinatal period through adolescence.
Examples
- Progressive, metastatic cancer or cancer with a known poor prognosis
- Extreme prematurity with multiple major medical problems
- Chromosomal disorders with known poor prognosis
- Progressive neuromuscular disorders
- Severe metabolic disorders, such as Krabbe, Hurler’s, Neimann-Pick and Sanfilippo
- Brain reduction syndromes, such as hydranencephaly, holoprosencephaly
- Severe forms of epidermolysis bullosa
- Single ventricle cardiac physiology with multiple medical complications
- Severe cardiomyopathy
- Severe pulmonary hypertension
- Cystic fibrosis with recurrent hospitalizations and consideration of lung transplant
Services
- Hospital and outpatient consultation for pain and symptom management and follow up
- Psychological, emotional, and social support for children and families facing serious illness
- Care coordination across settings to streamline care for families and medical providers
- Facilitating family or health care team meetings involving complex medical decision-making
- Help with clarifying goals of care
- Advance care planning (i.e., code status, POLST)
- Help with difficult medical decisions and creating a care plan that is consistent with treatment goals
- Hospice care referral and end-of-life medical management
- Grief support through all aspects of complex or chronic illness, death and ongoing bereavement
- Education for families and health care providers
- Debriefing and support for health care providers
Service Availability
Inpatient and outpatient consultation and follow-up: Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.
What happens when you refer a patient?
- The Hummingbird team schedules an appointment with the patient and family.
- The team meets with the child and family to learn more about the medical condition. We work to understand the child and family’s concerns, and the goals and priorities that are most important to them. We will assess symptoms and suggest symptom management where needed.
- We tailor ongoing support to meet the unique needs, goals and wishes of each child and family.
- Our team serves in a consultation capacity, providing assistance and recommendations to the patient’s primary care physician and other medical providers.
