The Schwartz Center For Compassionate Healthcare

The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare's mission is simple, but compelling: to promote compassionate healthcare so that patients and their caregivers relate to one another in a way that provides hope to the patient, support to caregivers and sustenance to the healing process. The Schwartz Center a national nonprofit dedicated to strengthening relationships between patients and caregivers and promoting compassionate, patient-centered care. The Center reflects the vision of Ken Schwartz, a Boston healthcare attorney who died of lung cancer at age 40 and found that what mattered to him most as a patient were the simple acts of kindness from his caregivers, which he said made "the unbearable bearable." He founded the Schwartz Center in 1995 to ensure that all patients are treated with compassion. The Center is housed at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, where Ken received his care.