Hospice is a philosophy of care.

Hospice is a compassionate, patient-centered approach to enhance the quality of life and support for people at the end of life and their families. Hospice care is focused on maintaining dignity, increasing quality of life, and providing comfort, including pain and symptom management. Hospice care is for patients with a variety of diagnoses, including heart disease, stroke, liver disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and more.

Hospice is not a place; it’s a philosophy of care that enhances life as it nears its end for the patients and their families and friends. Even when medicine cannot provide a cure, it can offer comfort, care and assistance that can help maintain a better quality of life for the patient. This type of care, called palliative care, involves the aggressive treatment of physical and emotional pain and symptoms. It focuses on enhancing a patient’s comfort and improving quality of life. Hospice affirms life and does not hasten or postpone death.

Hospice care treats the person rather than the disease;

It focuses on quality rather than length of life. Hospice care is family-centered care — it involves the patient and the family in making decisions. Care is provided for the patient and family 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Hospice care can be given in the patient’s home, a hospital, nursing home, or private hospice facility. Most hospice care in the United States is given in the home, with a family member or members serving as the main hands-on caregiver.

One of the problems with hospice is that it is often not started soon enough.

Sometimes the doctor, patient, or family member will resist hospice because he or she thinks it means you’re giving up, or that there’s no hope. This is not true.

If you get better or the disease doesn’t progress, you can be taken out of the hospice program and go into active treatment. You can go back to hospice care at a later time, if needed. The hope that hospice brings is the hope of a quality life, making the best of each day during the last stages of advanced illness.

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