Palliative care: your quality of life takes centre stage
October 29, 2025
5 min
A serious illness changes many things: your everyday life, the way you live together and your thoughts. At Zollikerberg Hospital, you are not alone in this challenging phase of your life. Our Palliative Care Competence Centre supports you and your family and loved ones with professional expertise, experience, humanity and care. Together we support you in maintaining your quality of life day after day.
What you can expect from us
- Holistic care that puts you at the centre of attention
- An experienced, interprofessional team of specialists
- Involvement of relatives and carers as an important part of your support network
- Calm atmosphere and complementary therapies for your well-being
- Forward-looking planning that puts your wishes and values at the centre
The person is holistically at the centre
Palliative care is not primarily about healing, but about alleviating suffering and shaping life. We take the time to understand and respond to your fears, needs, questions and wishes. We consider you and your relatives and carers as a unit of care.
We are guided by the SENS model, which enables us to provide holistic care:
- S for "symptom management" - we alleviate pain and discomfort.
- E for "decision-making" - we define goals and priorities together.
- N for "network" - we involve everyone involved in the care.
- S for "Support" - we also support your relatives and loved ones, if necessary beyond the end of life.
At the centre of our care is the person with all their dimensions: physical, mental, social and spiritual. We treat complaints such as pain, shortness of breath or fatigue as well as emotional and social stress, thus promoting harmony of body, mind and soul until the end of life.
Your interprofessional team
Our interprofessional team consists of specialists in medicine, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology, pastoral care and social and nutritional counselling. Together, we ensure that you feel you are in good hands - medically, personally and spiritually.
Since the beginning of 2017, Zollikerberg Hospital has held the "Quality in Palliative Care" certificate. This means that we are audited by "qualitépalliative" and thus offer high-quality, interprofessional and holistic palliative care for people with chronic illnesses in accordance with defined structural and process criteria.
We are here for you
Aspects, principles and goals of palliative care
Find out more about the principles of palliative care and how our team at Zollikerberg Hospital strengthens, accompanies and supports you and your family and loved ones. You can also discover the special features and services of our specialised palliative care unit.
Care, time and space for closeness
Our specialised palliative care ward offers you quiet single rooms with a view of the countryside. Here you can take a deep breath and relax. Your carers and relatives are welcome around the clock and can also stay overnight if they wish. It is important to us that you can spend as much time together as possible.
In addition to our medical and nursing care, we offer you a wide range of supportive therapies. These include encounters with our therapy dog, phototherapy, music therapy and therapeutic laying on of hands. If required, you will also be accompanied by dedicated volunteers who give time, listen and are there for you.
All these offers have one goal: to strengthen your well-being, provide relief and enable moments of peace and security.
Looking ahead together
Advance health planning is an important part of our work. In confidential discussions, we support you in making early medical decisions that fulfil your personal wishes. In this way, even if you lack the capacity for judgement, care in your best interests is guaranteed and we create security for you and your family and loved ones.
Our specialised palliative care ward is not designed for long-term care. As a rule, you will stay with us for a maximum of three weeks, for as long as our assessment based on professional indications requires. However, our commitment does not end when you are discharged: we work with you to plan your return home or transition to another facility and work closely with GPs, Spitex, mobile palliative care services and specialists in long-term institutions.
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