Women in Healthcare: Sara Pagliaro, DO

Sara Pagliaro, DO, Chief Medical Officer, Samaritan

“We enter a patient’s care to provide hope and help to live each day as fully as possible with the support of our expert and compassionate care team.”

A Personal Approach to Life-Enhancing Care

Dr. Sara Pagliaro’s grandmother died in the 1980s, but the compassionate care she received at the end of her life is still echoing today. It helped shape her granddaughter’s path into medicine, and today, as the Chief Medical Officer of Samaritan, Dr. Pagliaro is dedicated to ensuring families facing their most vulnerable moments are met with skill and support.

Dr. Pagliaro began her career in family practice, but soon saw “there was a need for my personality and ability to connect with people in hospice and palliative medicine,” she says. “I’ve been doing that at Samaritan ever since.”

Dr. Pagliaro has helped shape the healthcare provider’s interdisciplinary approach. Each patient is cared for by a team of experts that includes doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, social workers, home health aides, spiritual support and bereavement counselors. Samaritan’s central goal is to improve a patient’s quality of life, and that also means turning to integrative and complementary therapies such as massage therapy, music therapy, pet therapy and even aromatherapy.

“Working as a team,” Dr. Pagliaro says, “makes so much sense, because it helps us see the medical complexities guided by the goals of our patients and their families, as we care for the whole person – physical, emotional and spiritual.”

Dr. Pagliaro brings her expertise in dementia care to Samaritan’s newest program, a Medicare model called GUIDE: Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience, aimed at providing additional services and support to families as part of Samaritan’s Dementia Care Program.

“We can diagnose dementia much earlier now,” Dr. Pagliaro says, “and that means we have the opportunity to start conversations with the patient when they can still talk about what they want and don’t want. The GUIDE program can help support the caregivers and keep patients in their home. We know they may have advanced needs for physical care as their disease moves forward.”

The Samaritan care team is experienced in anticipating issues that are likely to come up, including mood changes, changes in how much the patient can physically do for themselves, sleep issues, weight and feeding issues. “We arm the caregiver or decision-maker with the tools they need, and make sure they feel confident,” Dr. Pagliaro says.

Dr. Pagliaro’s openness and gentle honesty helps families navigate the difficult conversations that are vital for setting realistic expectations and goals of care for all serious illness navigation. She and her team reinforce the importance of making well-informed decisions ahead of urgent situations like hospitalizations or discussions about end of life, she says.

Dr. Pagliaro knows the terms “palliative care” and “hospice” can instill fear. “But if someone came to you without those terms and said, ‘You have advanced disease and I have services to help you and keep you comfortable in your home with less hospitalizations and more support,’ most people would want to learn more. We enter a patient’s care to provide hope and help to live each day as fully as possible with the support of our expert and compassionate care team. Our care plans honor and respect what patients want for themselves, what family members want for their loved ones, and what clinicians want for their patients.”

In 13 years with Samaritan, Dr. Pagliaro has come to understand that the overall goal of healthcare isn’t a specific treatment or task. “It’s the big picture. It’s relationships, understanding, communication and trust. For 45 years our team has been trusted by the community,” Dr. Pagliaro says, “We’re committed to keeping that trust.”

Sara Pagliaro, DO, Chief Medical Officer, Samaritan