OSI's Palliative Care
"A healthy, happy, and loving death is the most important challenge in our time"
Developing an all-inclusive Palliative Care Program of Excellence, which allows us to accompany in the best possible way those who starting the last stage of their life cycle, has become one of Sanitas International Organization's strategic objectives. Therefore, ISO continues to work on enhancing our health professionals' knowledge in this field, their human qualities, and the growth of our institutions in this regard.
At the Colsanitas Clinic, we are committed to accompanying users in the best way possible starting at birth, then different growth stages, and throughout their life. Currently, we want to delve into offering the best health care by accompanying our patients towards a good death and understanding death as a normal process of life.
Hence, as part of Clínica Universitaria Colombia first decade celebration held in Bogota, Colombia, there was a key symposium with special guests such as the renowned Colombian medical researcher, Alejandro Jadad Bechara with his lecture: "A healthy, happy, and loving death is the most important challenge in our time". Furthermore, top executives of the Sanitas International Organization, approximately 700 health professionals from the Colsanitas Clinic, and students from the Sanitas University Foundation attended the academic event.
Doctor Jadad's lecture drew attention to studies developed by his research group, which show how over 90 percent of health professionals working in palliative care around the world would not want to experience death like their patients did. In addition, a high percentage of the former expressed wishes for a happy death, being able to at home, near their loved ones and pain free.
The lecture is a reflection inviting us to direct our efforts towards continuing to work for our patients and their families by understanding the human pain which stems from the body, mind, and spirit as well as giving comfort, peace, and unconditional support until the final moments of life.