From the Guidelines
Hospice care is a comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to providing comfort and support to individuals with terminal illnesses, typically with a prognosis of six months or less.
Key Components of Hospice Care
The primary goal of hospice care is to manage symptoms, alleviate pain, and improve quality of life, rather than to cure the underlying disease 1.
- Medications: such as morphine and haloperidol are commonly used to manage pain, dyspnea, and agitation.
- Hospice Care Team: consisting of physicians, nurses, social workers, and spiritual caregivers, works together to provide individualized care and support to patients and their families.
Settings for Hospice Care
Hospice care can be provided in various settings, including:
- Home: patients may receive routine home care, as well as hospital care for a condition unrelated to the terminal condition 1.
- Hospital: patients may receive hospice care in a dedicated unit within a hospital or nursing home 1.
- Freestanding facilities: hospice care can be provided in freestanding centers offering care in the patient’s home or in a home-like in-patient setting 1.
Eligibility and Access
To be eligible for hospice care, patients typically must have a prognosis of six months or less and agree to forego insurance coverage for treatments aimed at curing their illness 1.
- Medicare: recipients may receive hospice care in several environments, including home, hospital, and freestanding facilities 1.
- Barriers to access: include misconceptions about hospice care, lack of awareness about eligibility criteria, and limited availability of hospice services 1.
From the Research
Definition of Hospice Care
- Hospice care is a type of palliative care provided at the end of life, focusing on comprehensive comfort care for patients and support for family members 2.
- It includes medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support tailored to patient needs and wishes 2.
- Hospice care is typically provided to patients with a prognosis of 6 months or less if the illness runs its expected course 2, 3, 4.
Delivery of Hospice Care
- Hospice care is delivered by an interdisciplinary team, including family physicians, physician medical directors, nurses, social workers, counselors, home health aides, and trained volunteers 2.
- Care can be provided in various settings, including the patient's home, long-term care facilities, hospice facilities, and hospitals 2.
Benefits of Hospice Care
- Hospice care has been associated with better symptom relief, better achievement of patient end-of-life wishes, and higher overall rating of quality of end-of-life care compared to standard care 2.
- Interdisciplinary collaborative hospice care can provide terminal geriatric cancer patients with coordinated, comfortable, high-quality, and humanistic care 5.
- Hospice care can also reduce medical costs and improve patient and family satisfaction 5.
Relationship with Palliative Care
- Palliative care is comprehensive, interdisciplinary care focusing on pain and symptom management, advance-care planning and communication, psychosocial and spiritual support 6, 4.
- Hospice care is a type of palliative care provided to patients with a prognosis of 6 months or less 4.
- Palliative care can be provided to patients with serious illnesses, regardless of prognosis, to improve symptom management and quality of life 4.