He said the main way ill children will be referred to the program will be through their doctors. Dr. Noreen Crain, the medical director of the pediatric palliative care program at the University of Virginia Children’s Hospital, is one of those doctors. Crain works with her team to provide pain and symptom management for young patients. “There are times when it [palliative care] becomes parallel to hospice,” she said. Crain described hospice programs as generally “broader, bigger, and ideally starts earlier.”