Hospice Care

What Is Hospice Care?

Hospice Care is provided to relieve symptoms and helping Patients that have a life expectancy of a few months. Hospice is provided by an expert medical team that focuses on pain management and emotional and spiritual support. Hospice emphasizes caring and comfort as opposed to curing. Hospice care is provided in the Patient’s home, hospitals and long term care facilities.

What Is Palliative Care?

Palliative care aims to provide pain and symptom relief in order to reduce the stress of the Patient due to a serious illness. This type of care improves the quality of life and is provided during any stage of an illness. This type of care can be provided along with curative treatment.

Hospice Vs. Palliative Care

Both Hospice and Palliative Care focus on improving the quality of life for the Patient which is why most people confuse the two types of care. Both aim to provide symptom and pain management. The easiest way to remember the difference is that Hospice is for terminal Patients only and Palliative does not have to be.

The Philosophy Of Hospice

Hospice is a special kind of care designed to provide sensitivity and support for people in the final of a terminal illness and is based on a philosophy which embraces 6 significant concepts:

Death is a natural part of life. When death is inevitable, Hospice will neither seek to hasten nor to postpone it.
Hospice Care establishes pain and symptom control as an appropriate clinical goal.
Hospice recognizes death as a both spiritual and physical experience. Psychological and spiritual pain is as significant as physical pain and deserves the same attention.
Patients, their families and loved ones are the unit of care. We have learned that to effectively care for Patients we cannot separate Patients from their environment. That environment includes their homes, their families and friends.
Bereavement Care is critical to supporting surviving family members and friends.
Hospice Care is made available by most Hospices regardless of the Patient’s ability to pay.

The Dying Process

Dying is a natural part of life, but many people do not have experience caring for someone in their final days and find themselves navigating through new and unfamiliar territory. It is not uncommon to experience a wide range of emotions and a sense of uncertainty. At times you may feel that you are on a roller coaster, not knowing what to expect next. This booklet is designed to help you feel more confident in knowing that to expect and what you can do to care for someone in their final weeks and hours of life. Each person’s dying experience is unique to them, and no one can fully predict what it will be like or when it will occur. However, we hope the information contained in this booklet will provide some guidance and help.

The History Of Hospice

Hospice originally dates back to Medieval times when weary travelers could find shelter and temporary respite from their journeys. Religious groups operated these shelters for travelers on religious pilgrimages, As time went on they extended their care to the sick, hungry and weary. The word “Hospice” is derived from the Latin terms “Hospes” and “Hospitium” which respectively mean Host and Hospitality.

Modern Hospice can be traced to the Irish Sisters of Charity who established St. Joseph’s Hospice at London in 1905. However the modern concept of Hospice Care as we know it was pioneered and defined in large part by Dame Cicely Saunders, a British physician who opened St. Christopher’s Hospice in London in 1967. It was through her work that the philosophy of emphasizing pain and management control rather than curative care was established.

What Is The Hospice Medicare Benefit?

It is a Medicare program designed specifically to allow terminally ill Patients to die at home. It is a home care program that allows Patients as much as control over their life/choices as possible while at the same time working to alleviate pain through symptom control regimes.

Home is defined as wherever the Patient resides. While the majority of Hospice Patients remain in their homes, other type residences caring for hospice Patients include:

In Patient Units
Skilled Nursing Facilities
Assisted Living Facilities

The Hospice Medicare Benefit is a special separate benefit under the Medicare program designed to be the single source of all the health care related to a Patient’s terminal illness.