Whether it is helping our clients and their families through recovery from a serious illness or surgery, providing ongoing support to those with disabilities, or easing the end-of-life transition, our team’s job is to provide exceptional home care that families can count on. We feel we have a responsibility to educate and advocate for our clients and their loved ones as they navigate healthcare so they can confidently make informed decisions.
The Realities of Hospital Discharge is a three-part series, covering three options after a hospitalization. Part 1 discusses home healthcare. Part 2 explores medication management when discharged to a rehabilitation center and then home.
For the third and final part of our series, we take on one of the most profound and emotionally complex decisions: hospice care. For many, hospice represents the last stage in a patient’s care journey, which can last not just days or weeks, but months or years. Hospice is about honoring a person’s dignity, comfort and peace in their final moments. It’s a deeply compassionate choice—one that helps families focus on what truly matters to them.
Defining Hospice Care: Providing Comfort and Support, Not Necessarily Giving Up
Choosing hospice care doesn’t mean that a patient is giving up. Rather, it can signify a shift in priorities—from seeking curative treatments to focusing on comfort and quality of life. For patients who may have endured long battles with illness, hospice offers relief from pain and stress, enabling them to spend their remaining days surrounded by family and loved ones in a peaceful environment.
Hospice is centered around making sure the patient’s final chapter is filled with compassion, respect and comfort, without the emotional and physical toll of continued curative interventions communicate with each other) and bring an up-to-date list of current medications to hospital admission.
These simple steps can help ensure that only the most essential and appropriate medications are prescribed, reducing the risk of errors and adverse effects with other medications, not to mention make it easier on the patient and family who’ll eventually oversee the regimen.
Palliative Care as a Bridge to Hospice
For some patients, palliative care serves as a bridge before entering hospice. Palliative care focuses on managing symptoms like pain, discomfort and anxiety, while the patient may still be undergoing other treatments. The goal is to enhance quality of life even in the face of chronic or terminal illness.
Once curative treatments are no longer effective, palliative care often transitions seamlessly into hospice care, where the focus remains on symptom management and emotional support for both the patient and family.
Dispelling Myths: Hospice Care Is Not Just for
the Final Days or for Hospice Facilities
A common misconception is that hospice care is only for the last few days of life or only within a hospice facility. The reality is that patients can be under hospice care for quite some time and can be discharged to their home, not only a hospice facility. It’s not uncommon for hospice to last up to a year or more, depending on the patient’s condition and prognosis. It’s worth repeating that hospice means a patient with a terminal diagnosis has chosen to not undergo treatments to cure the disease or illness.
Hospice providers regularly reassess patients every 90 days to ensure that they still meet the criteria for hospice services. These evaluations help the care team adjust to any changes in the patient’s condition and provide the family with ongoing guidance about what to expect. A patient could improve, be removed from hospice care and put back on later. The idea is not to rush toward the end, but rather to provide the necessary care and support, allowing patients to live their remaining time with as much grace and dignity as possible exactly where they want to be, either at home or a facility.
The Role of Families: Finding Support in a Difficult Time
Hospice is not just about supporting the patient—it’s about supporting the family as well. This is a deeply emotional journey, and hospice professionals are trained to help families navigate the complexities of end-of-life care. Hospice care includes services such as counseling, respite care and bereavement support, ensuring that family members are cared for as they care for their loved one. It is a partnership where families are actively involved in decision-making but also provided with the resources and emotional guidance they need to cope with the situation.
Families often find comfort in knowing that they’re not alone in this process, and that hospice care is there to help ease the burden. Hospice care gives patients and their families the room and space to start the loss and grieving process, heal old wounds, have conversations that need to be had and such.
Medicare and Hospice: Understanding Benefits
Navigating the Medicare system is rarely easy and can be especially difficult and confusing in times of emotional stress. Hospice services are typically covered under Medicare Part A, but families should ensure they’re aware of how their specific circumstances may influence coverage. Hospice providers can often assist with these logistics, helping families focus more on the care their loved one needs and less on complex paperwork.
Getting support early on versus waiting, means a patient and the family can get equipment needed (like a bed), briefs, pads, nutrition and more, so there is a cost-savings to those on hospice.
A Peaceful Transition: Embracing the Final Stage of Care
The decision to enter hospice care is one made with any number of emotions, from fear, anger and resentment to acceptance, love and compassion. Hospice represents a peaceful transition, where the focus is no longer on prolonging life, but on making the time that remains meaningful.
With the support of a compassionate care team, patients can spend their final days surrounded by family, experiencing comfort and peace. Families, too, are supported every step of the way, ensuring that no one feels alone or overwhelmed by the emotional and practical challenges of end-of-life care.
Focus Healthcare is not a hospice provider, but our team is invaluable when it comes to providing the best recommendations for hospice care providers. We have an extensive team of certified end-of-life staff who are qualified to provide care, such as baths, catheters, medication administration, etc. when hospice is not there.
For a free in-home evaluation or to discuss any of our in-home health services, call (816) 628-5303 or contact us.
