Caregiver Information: 10 Things You Should Know About Hospice Care

The dictionary defines hospice as a shelter or lodging for travelers, children, or the destitute, often maintained by a monastic order. Today, hospice is a multidisciplinary service that provides rest for weary patients and their families.

Hospice provides support and care for persons in the last phases of incurable diseases so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible. Hospice recognizes dying as part of the normal process of living and focuses on maintaining the quality of remaining life.

Here are ten things you should know about hospice care:

1. Hospice is a special approach to caring for terminally ill patients that stresses palliative care (relief of pain and uncomfortable symptoms) as opposed to curative care.

2. Most hospice care focuses on keeping the patient at home, yet there are hospices located in hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies.

3. Admission to hospice is predicated on the poor prognosis of the patient.
This is generally stated as "6 months or less if the disease runs its expected course."

4. There are different "auspices" of programs providing hospice care. Some of these include: an inpatient hospice unit at a hospital or nursing home, a community-based hospice, a free-standing, inpatient hospice, a home care organization that provides hospice care with specially trained home care hospice nurses and volunteers, corporations that provide hospice care, continuing care retirement community hospice programs, and other models like HMOs.

5. The hospice and palliative care team may include: patients and families, clinician, social workers, physicians, dieticians, bereavement counselors, spiritual counselors, volunteers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech-language pathologists, home health aides, pharmacists, and others.

6. Pain and symptom management are a specialty area in hospice. Most patients receive a complement of pain solutions.

7. In addition to pain management, some of the hallmarks of hospice care include: knowledge of concepts related to death and dying, stress management skills, sensitive communication skills, a sense of humor, flexibility, and hospice and palliative care knowledge.

8. Many insurers now cover or reimburse hospice programs for hospice services.

9. Hospice team members and their clinical practice are described every day to surveyors, peers, and managers through the review of clinical records. The clinical record is a legal document.

10. Bereavement counseling is a part of the hospice organization's planned intervention program for survivors and is a key indicator of the quality of hospice services.

Today hospice has a major role in the healthcare movement and caregiver help. The terminally ill have options and the quality of their lives can still be within their control.

This article was written by Rebecca Sharp Colmer, a Certified Senior Advisor and the creator of MeAndMyCaregivers, a company who offers management and peace of mind over your loved one’s medical, financial and social well being.