How to Choose a Hospice
Not all hospices are the same—and it’s important to know the patient and family have a choice when it comes to selecting one. While all hospices are required to provide specific services, the quality of care associated with those services can vary greatly from hospice to hospice. What do all hospices have in common? Hospice care is based on the need for hospice, nothing more. Patients must meet the hospice criteria to qualify for hospice care, but no one...Read the rest of this article »
What’s the Difference Between Hospice & Palliative Care?
American hospice service started with the Connecticut Hospice in March 1974. Today, there are over 2,884 Medicare-certified hospices, and an additional 200 volunteer hospices in the U.S., with as many as 1.5 million Americans seeking hospice treatment in recent years. As a program designed to facilitate “palliative” care for terminally ill patients and their families—many people wonder, what then is the difference between hospice and palliative care, or are they one in the same? While palliative care addresses patients...Read the rest of this article »
Palliative & Hospice Care Explained: What It Is, What to Expect, How to Pay For it & How to Find It
What It Is To palliate means to ease discomfort by treating symptoms of an illness. Palliative care promotes the patient's comfort by addressing any and all issues causing physical or emotional pain or suffering. Also known as end-of-life care, hospice is palliative care designed to help the patient through the last stages of a terminal illness. The goal is to keep pain and suffering to a minimum, not to cure the illness-by this point, the patient's doctor has determined that...Read the rest of this article »
Hospice: How to Find & Assess
Gilbert Guide provides listings of hospices in your area, along with advice for finding the hospice that will best suit your individual needs. Hospice care can be provided at home or in a facility setting. Once you've narrowed your choices down, it's important that you meet potential hospice providers in person to determine whether they're a good fit for you. Finding a Hospice Most hospice agencies are licensed by the state and many are certified by Medicare. The National...Read the rest of this article »
Hospice: What to Expect
There is a lot of confusion around what one can expect when engaging hospice services. First, a referral is made by a physician, hospital, nursing home, patient or family member. Then a doctor must sign an order stating that the patient is hospice-appropriate. In other words, based on the doctor’s best medical judgment, the life expectancy of the patient is six months or fewer. If you want to make a referral for yourself, speak to your physician about your...Read the rest of this article »
