The concept of these teams is now widely accepted but there is an increased need for information about setting up a team how they work and how effective they are this book looks at the need for hospital based palliative care teams and the challenges of bringing palliative care into the acute hospital setting. The west virginia initiative to improve end of life care charged its palliative care delivery system task force with developing hospital based palliative care teams in west virginia. This book looks at the challenges of bringing palliative care into the acute hospital setting reviewing the needs of patients their families and carers and also covers the problems which might be read more. When the first edition of this book terminal care support teams the hospital hospice interface 1990 was written there were only a few advisory palliative care teams working in hospitals since then the number of teams has grown rapidly. Hospital based palliative care teams the hospital hospice interface second edition r j dunlop and j m hockley when the first edition of this book was written there were only a few advisory palliative care teams working in hospitals