What Is Home Hospice Care?

With hospice services, the emphasis is on preventing pain and otherwise keeping the patient comfortable rather than making any efforts to cure the disease.Hospice strives to improve the quality of life rather than focusing on lengthening the time remaining.If a patient has terminal cancer, chemotherapy treatments will be stopped because they would cause unnecessary illness and suffering, while pain medicines would be prescribed to make the patient comfortable.And when a patient who is under hospice care dies, family members are asked to not call 911 because ambulance crews are under an obligation to try to resuscitate someone rather than letting them die in peace.

At the same time that hospice care focuses on preventing pain and discomfort, it also strives to keep patients mentally alert so that they are able to enjoy their final days and make any important decisions that may remain.Hospice workers carefully balance the intended effects of medicines with potential side effects to arrive at the best plan for each individual patient.

When you or a family member is under hospice care, the hospice is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to be of service.There are nurses on call at all times who will do everything they can to assist you.Hospice care professionals are licensed practitioners who have chosen hospice as their area of specialization.They are able to do most of the procedures that can be performed in a hospital, such as administer medications, set up IVs, and do blood work.

Hospice professionals also work to keep family members informed.They are experts on death.This isn't meant in a morbid way; it simply means that they are familiar enough with the process of dying that they can keep you aware of stages and milestones.Through careful study over time, they have compiled characteristics of patients who have six months to live, three months to live and so on as the body goes through a natural and logical process of shutting down.

Hospice care recognizes the psychological and spiritual needs of the terminally ill and their families.Counselors are available to help you work through your feelings, whether you are the one who is dying or a family member.Hospice workers will do everything they can to help you fulfill any spiritual requests, which will vary greatly depending upon the patient.Counseling services are also available to surviving family members.

Many insurance policies recognize the importance of hospice care and will fully pay for its services, but it's important to check for yourself your policy's regulations before committing to hospice care.