What is Hospice Care?
Hospice care focuses on the needs of individuals faced with a serious illness and their families, rather than focusing on the illness. This type of care seeks to offer comfort, a better quality of life, and support for the entire family. Hospice care provides an interdisciplinary team of health care professionals who work with the patient and family to implement a plan of care that is unique to the patient’s diagnosis.
Four Levels of Hospice Care
There are four distinct levels of hospice care, providing treatments that are specific to all of the patient’s needs.
Routine Home Care
The first level of hospice care is routine home care. This is the most basic level of care that includes regularly scheduled visits to address the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of patients and their caregivers.
Routine hospice care can be provided wherever the patient calls home, whether that be in a nursing facility, assisted living facility, etc. A patient receiving routine hospice care has access to the following services:
- Home health aide
- Pain and symptom management
- Nurses, social worker, and chaplains/spiritual care
- 24/7 on-call services
- Medical equipment, supplies, and medications
Continuous Hospice Care
Continuous hospice care is another level of hospice care that is appropriate for patients with acute symptoms that cannot be managed by the primary caregiver. Continuous hospice care, also known as intensive comfort care, brings round-the-clock nursing or support. This level of hospice care allows the caregiver to take a step back from being a caregiver and focus on being with their loved one.
Inpatient Hospice Care
The vast majority of hospice care is provided at home. However, when symptoms can no longer be managed at home, inpatient hospice care is required. This level of hospice care helps assess and manage acute, complex, or uncontrolled symptoms.
The goal for inpatient hospice care is to address the symptoms the patient may be experiencing so the patient can return to the homecare level as soon as possible.
Respite Care
Respite care is occasional, short-term stays that provide temporary relief for the primary caregiver. This allows the primary caregiver to take a much-needed break from the demands of caregiving while allowing the patient to receive appropriate symptom management.
Contact Us
At Pallatus Health, our caring clinicians work as a team with the patient and their family to develop a treatment program that works for them. Get started with us today and schedule an appointment!
