Palliative Care


Inpatient: 515-643-4203 | Outpatient: 515-643-4915


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At MercyOne Des Moines, our Palliative Care team focuses on reducing a patient’s suffering and stress when they are going through any illness – regardless of how severe it is.

Our team helps patients control pain and symptoms and can help develop goals and a plan for long-term care. We strive to improve the quality of life for those suffering from a chronic disease.  

Palliative Care Team

Many medical staff members work together to form our palliative care team. We coordinate your care plan to come up with the best solutions for each patient’s unique circumstances. Our team includes:

  • Physicians
  • Nurses
  • Pastoral Care
  • Social Workers

How can Palliative Care help?

Palliative Care can help with all aspects of life for someone going through medical treatment for chronic illness, including:

  • Physical –pain, fatigue, nausea, shortness of breath, loss of appetite, constipation/diarrhea, difficulty sleeping
  • Emotional – anxiety, depression, stress, coping skills
  • Psychological – confusion, dementia
  • Spiritual – spiritual and emotional support, finding peace with your illness/diagnosis

How is Palliative Care different than Hospice?

While both areas provide comfort measures, hospice is generally reserved for those with a terminal illness in their last months of life. Palliative Care assists patients in improving day-to-day quality of life while living with a chronic disease. 

How do I meet with Palliative Care?

To request a consultation with Palliative Care, tell your health care provider that you would like to meet with the palliative care team. They can give you a referral. Palliative Care can be reached at (515) 643-4203 (inpatient care for those in the hospital) or (515) 643-4915 for our outpatient services.

Patient Care Story

When Barb Bates of Ankeny wakes up these days, she usually finds her husband, Will, sitting in his recliner and quietly reading the newspaper with their dog on his lap.

It sounds like a normal, peaceful morning for this retired Iowa couple, but to Will and Barb, who married in 2007, this everyday scene is anything but ordinary.

For nearly 18 years, Will, who is 68, suffered from horrible pain and nausea nearly every single day. When Barb woke up, she usually found him in that same recliner, dry heaving and doubled over with pain. The pain sapped his energy and caused him to retire early from a career he loved, as a drug and alcohol counselor.

“I lived with it so long … I was miserable, but that just became the norm,” Will says.

But thanks to collaborative treatment from MercyOne pain specialist physician Jolene Smith, DO, and primary care physician Brian Scott, MD, Will has found complete relief from the pain that shadowed his days for so many years. 

It’s such a change that Barb recently snapped a photo of him relaxing in his chair to share with their family and friends.

“We praise God every morning,” Barb says with gratitude. “It’s truly a miracle. We are so thankful to Dr. Goldman and his nurse, Jen Krier. The whole team just worked and worked to find a solution for Will, and we are so very grateful.”

Will’s pain started after he had surgery in 2002 to remove his entire esophagus, which had a cancerous tumor. Surgeons in Iowa City fashioned a short esophagus from part of his stomach, making it necessary to sever his vagus nerve. 

Will and Barb had visited numerous doctors in and out of Iowa, including the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, in search of an answer, but none of them could help … until a church friend in Ankeny recommended seeing Dr. Goldman, who had successfully treated her. 

A surgeon who had assisted in removing part of Will’s pancreas several years ago to help with digestive and blood sugar issues caused by his cancer surgery. Dr. Goldman had since transitioned into palliative care, unbeknownst to the Bateses. When Barb happened to run into him during one of Will’s hospitalizations, shortly after hearing her church friend’s recommendation, she recognized Dr. Goldman and asked him to take on Will’s case. 

After digging into the problem, Dr. Goldman theorized that the severed nerve was the source of Will’s ongoing pain and referred him to Dr. Smith at the MercyOne Pain Clinic. She performed a test procedure using lidocaine, which worked temporarily and showed the nerve endings were involved. After a second procedure to deaden the nerve endings with an injection of alcohol, Will found complete and lasting relief. 

“All these years, so many doctors have assumed the pain was due to fact that my anatomy is different now, and said there was no solution,” says Will. “This team was different. 

“I think the world of Dr. Goldman—he really digs deep, strives to understand, and has a wonderful sense of humor on top of it all. And Jen was always there for me. If I ended up in the hospital, they would both be at my bedside at the ER. Both Barb and I were so impressed with Dr. Smith, too. She told us she couldn’t promise this procedure would work, but she had had great success with it and that gave us confidence. She and her staff treated us so well.”

Will’s gratitude for his new normal is profound. 

“I feel better than I have for 18 years,” he says. “So many people and so many pieces came together to make this miracle.” 

With 10 grandchildren and one great-grandson between them, he and Barb are looking forward to the future and the end of the pandemic. 

“I wasn’t fine for so long … now I really feel I’m going to live, and I’m here to enjoy it!” he says.