Samaritan Care Pathways
Redefining support for patients with advanced heart disease
For families navigating a serious diagnosis, the health care system can feel like a maze – one marked by frequent hospitalizations, changing care teams and difficult decisions. Samaritan Care Pathways is designed to bring clarity, continuity and compassion to that journey, and its Advanced Cardiac Care Program stands as a leading example of how that support can transform care for patients with complex heart conditions.
Sara Pagliaro, DO
“Our Samaritan Care Pathways is unique in helping patients and their loved ones navigate serious illness as early as the time of diagnosis,” says Sara Pagliaro, DO, chief medical officer at Samaritan.
Samaritan is a nonprofit healthcare organization that provides coordinated palliative care, hospice and supportive medical services to patients and families facing serious and life-limiting illness. Samaritan Care Pathways brings these services together into one coordinated program, with a special focus on patients whose illnesses strongly affect their symptoms and quality of life – particularly those living with advanced heart disease.
“This is a way for our clinical services to assess, evaluate and really look at each significant and advanced illness,” Dr. Pagliaro says. “A growing number of patients really benefit from a specialized care plan that focuses on their illness and quality of life, especially during the time that we are able to serve them.”
The Advanced Cardiac Care Program is a cornerstone of Samaritan Care Pathways, created specifically to meet the complex needs of patients with heart disease, heart failure and cardiomyopathy. These patients often face frequent hospitalizations, a high symptom burden and a complicated web of specialists, therapies and care transitions.
“When a patient enters the program, we look closely at how their disease has impacted them and what services we can provide to help improve their quality of life,” says Dr. Pagliaro. Interdisciplinary teams collaborate across inpatient, outpatient, palliative and hospice settings, alongside social work and nursing, to support not only medical needs, but emotional, social and practical concerns as well.
“When you or someone you love is diagnosed with an advanced illness, it is such a difficult time to navigate, and having all of that support in one place is incredibly important.”
This focused, coordinated approach has earned national recognition. Because of the strength of its Advanced Cardiac Care Program, Samaritan became the first New Jersey–based hospice to be awarded Palliative/
Hospice Heart Failure certification from the American Heart Association, a distinction granted at the end of 2025. For families, the benefits are tangible.
“That stamp of approval really means something,” says Dr. Pagliaro. “It signals that patients can expect a high level of expertise, strong clinical protocols and consistent quality across the continuum of care.”
Continuity is a defining feature of the Advanced Cardiac Care Program. Patients with serious heart disease often move between hospitals, rehabilitation facilities and home care, where important conversations can easily be lost.
“In that cycle, what often gets lost are the goals-of-care discussions,” Dr. Pagliaro says. “The interdisciplinary team and care team at Samaritan strive to provide that continuity by re-addressing goals, re-addressing symptoms and re-centering the focus on where the patient wants to be.”
This approach keeps patients at the center of their own care. “It helps keep the patient’s voice heard, actively seeks their input and makes them the center of care – rather than focusing only on treatments or medications,” says Dr. Pagliaro.
Ultimately, Samaritan Care Pathways – and particularly its Advanced Cardiac Care Program – offers families something they deeply need: coordinated, compassionate support in one place during an overwhelming time. By combining cardiac-specific expertise with deeply individualized, person-centered care, Samaritan is redefining how advanced heart disease is managed.
“When you or someone you love is diagnosed with an advanced illness, it is such a difficult time to navigate,” Dr. Pagliaro says. “And having all of that support in one place is incredibly important.”
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