Hospice Care

 Hospice is a special kind of caring.  Hospice care involves a team-oriented approach to expert medical care, pain management and emotional and spiritual support, expressly tailored to the patient’s needs and wishes.  Support is extended to the patient’s loved ones as well.

At the center of hospice is the belief that each of us has the right to die pain-free and with dignity, and that our families will receive the necessary support to allow us to do so.  The focus is on caring, not curing.  Hospice is dedicated to making that possible.

Hospice services are available to those who can no longer benefit from curative treatment or to those who decide not to pursue or continue treatment.  Most hospice patients have a life expectancy of six months and receive their care at their residence.

 

How Hospice Differs From Other Types of Care?

Hospice offers palliative, rather than curative treatment. Under the direction of a physician, generally your own primary physician, hospice uses state of the art methods of pain and symptom control that enable the patient to live as fully and comfortably as possible.   

Hospice treats the person, not the disease. The hospice team is made up of professionals who address the medical, spiritual and emotional needs of the patient and loved ones.  

Hospice emphasizes quality, rather than length of life. Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death because it affirms life and regards dying as a normal process. Hospice stresses human values that go beyond the physical needs of the patient.  

Hospice considers the entire family, not just the patient in providing care. Patients and their loved ones make the decisions. Bereavement counseling is provided to the family after the death of their loved one.