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Mass General program addresses patients' spiritual needs

Quality Improvement Monitor, June 15, 2007

A new program at Massachusetts General Hospital aims to better address the spiritual needs of patients, something studies show often go unmet, according to the Boston Globe.

In fact, 72% of advanced cancer patients felt their spiritual needs were ignored, according to a study by Tracy A. Balboni, MD, and colleagues at the Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, the Globe reported.

The Kenneth B. Schwartz Center at Massachusetts General is trying to address those needs.

The idea is "not to impose God or a Higher Power on a nonbeliever," Kathleen Gallivan, director of the chaplaincy department at Brigham and Women's Hospital, told the paper. Rather, the program asks "a patient whether religion or spirituality is a resource for them."

The Joint Commission has for years "required hospitals to accommodate the rights to pastoral and other spiritual services for patients," Pat Adamski, director of the standards interpretation group at the commission, told the Globe.

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