Q: What is Hospice?

A: Hospice has turned an eternal truth into a living principle – what is truly important is a life lived deeply and meaningfully for as long as it lasts. By promoting dignity, comfort and caring, hospice helps terminally ill patients and their loved ones cope with, and find meaning in, the end of life. Hospice is a special program of supportive and clinical services supervised by the patient’s personal physician. It allows patients to maintain control over their lives, to prepare for death in their own way, and to live out their lives in a familiar environment.

Q: When should patients and families consider hospice?

A: After a diagnosis of a life-limiting illness, patients and their families should consider their choices for care. A patient does not have to be bed-bound or critically ill to be admitted to hospice. A Family Hospice representative will be happy to talk with you about the hospice benefit.

Q: Doesn't accepting hospice care mean giving up?

A: Hospice involves acknowledging that most diseases in their advanced form cannot be cured. It does not mean giving up hope. Hope is found in helping the patient and family achieve the highest possible level of physical comfort and peace of mind. Hope means different things to different people, and we will walk by your side on the journey to live out what hope means to you.

Q: How is hospice different from other medical care?

A: Hospice is focused on patients' and families' needs. A coordinated team of hospice professionals works to meet physical, emotional and spiritual needs.  The emphasis is on controlling pain and symptoms through the most advanced techniques available and on emotional and spiritual support tailored to the needs of the patient and family. Hospice recognizes that a serious illness affects the entire family as well as the person who is ill. The family, not just the patient, is the "unit of care" for hospice professionals. Sometimes other family members actually need more support than the patient.

Q: How does a hospice admission work?

A: After contacting the patient's physician to ensure that hospice is the appropriate course of action, Family Hospice assigns an R.N. case manager to each patient. The case manager meets the patient, family members and other caregivers to design a treatment plan and to discuss any questions that they may have. The patient will execute consent and insurance forms along with a “hospice election form” stating that the patient understands that the care is palliative (aimed at pain relief, symptom control and other comfort measures) rather than curative.

Q: What if I choose hospice care and then live more than six months?

A: Hospice care does not automatically end after six months. Medicare and most other insurers will continue to pay for hospice care as long as a physician certifies that the patient continues to have a limited life expectancy.

Q: What if my condition improves?

A: Occasionally, the quality of care provided by Family Hospice leads to substantially improved health. When this happens, Family Hospice will transfer care to a non-hospice care provider. Later, if the patient becomes eligible for hospice, the patient can re-elect the hospice benefit. There is no penalty for getting better!

Q: How does hospice manage pain and other symptoms?

A: Hospice physicians and nurses are experts at pain and symptom control. They are continually developing new protocols for keeping patients comfortable and as alert and independent as possible. They know which medications to use singly and in combination to provide the best results for each patient.

Q: Don't pain control medications make people feel "doped up?"

A: When morphine and other pain control medications are administered properly for medical reasons, patients find much-needed relief without getting "high" or craving drugs. The result is that hospice patients often remain more alert and active because they are not exhausted by uncontrolled symptoms.

Q: What kinds of emotional and spiritual support does hospice provide?

A: Hospice recognizes that people are more than a collection of symptoms. People nearing the end of their lives often face enormous emotional and spiritual distress. They are dismayed as their physical abilities begin to fail. They don't want to be a burden on their families. They worry how their loved ones will manage without them. Sometimes, they feel deep regret about things they have done or said - or things left undone and unsaid. Hospice professionals and volunteers are trained to be active listeners and to help patients and families work through some of these concerns so that they can find peace and emotional comfort in their final days.