Palliative Care and Hospice

Palliative Care Consult Team (PCCT)

The palliative care consult team helps support Veterans with serious illness. Palliative care tries to meet your goals. We help you stay comfortable while you continue disease treatments. We also help you and your family understand your health. We discuss treatment options to help you make medical decisions that are right for you. We also recommend medications to help with pain, nausea, difficulty breathing, or other symptoms. 

Our team can visit when you are in the hospital. If you are at home, we can meet while you are at the VA Medical Centers, or by video or telephone. Please discuss referral to the PCCT with your primary care provider (PACT team) or other doctors.

Serenity Place Lake City Hospice and Palliative Care Unit (HPCU)

The Serenity Place HPCU is a small inpatient unit at the Lake City VA Medical Center. The HPCU cares for Veterans nearing end of life and needing help with symptoms. An eligible Veteran is expected to live less than 6 months and wants to focus on comfort. The goal of a HPCU admission is to improve the Veteran’s quality of life and support Veterans and families. 

Six of our rooms are private. All rooms have a sofa bed or chair for visitors. We try to keep each room private, but at times we do have two patients in a room. We also have a family room with bathroom for families. We have a kitchen/dining room and a screened-in porch to enjoy. 

If you are interested, please discuss referral to the HPCU with your primary care provider (PACT team), or with your home hospice. We work closely with hospice teams in the community to help a Veteran come to our HPCU. If a Veteran improves, we can also help them get the right support to go home or closer to home.

Visiting Hours

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the HPCU visiting changes often. Please contact the HPCU team to ask about current policies. We allow compassionate visits for end-of-life patients 24 hours/day.

Contact Information

Palliative Care Consult Team: 

• For consults on Gainesville inpatients: -2351
• For consults on outpatients or Lake City inpatients:  
• For outpatients having issues: or

Serenity Place Hospice and Palliative Care Unit: 

• For issues about Veterans on the unit: -2455
• For consults on Gainesville/Lake City inpatients: -2700
• For consults on inpatients in another hospital:
• For consults on patients at home or in inpatient hospice: -2700

Palliative Care Consult Team
Geriatrics and Extended Care
Malcom Randall VA Medical Center
1601 SW Archer Road
Gainesville, FL 32608-1197

Serenity Place Hospice and Palliative Care Unit
Lake City VA Medical Center 3 South
619 South Marion Avenue
Lake City, FL 32025

Hours of Operation

Palliative Care Consult Team: 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Serenity Place Hospice/Palliative Care Unit: 24 Hours/Day