The Regence Foundation has awarded a combined $83,700 to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia and Providence Centralia Hospital to expand access to palliative care services in their communities.

Providence St. Peter received a $63,000 grant to expand its existing inpatient palliative care program and provide palliative care education to area health providers. Providence Centralia received $20,700 to develop its hospital-based palliative care program.

Providence St. Peter established its inpatient palliative care service in 2006, and since then patient volume on the service has more than doubled. Outside the hospital, however, there are not many palliative care options for patients not yet ready for hospice.

Currently, there are no hospital-based palliative care programs in Lewis County. The foundation grant to Providence Centralia is to help the hospital plan and develop its palliative care program.

The Regence Foundation is the corporate foundation of Regence, the largest health insurer in the Northwest/Intermountain region and a nonprofit independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.