Do you know someone with a serious disease with a prognosis of six months or less to live if the disease runs its normal course?
Have you seen a diminished quality of life due to the treatment?
Are you trying to break the cycle of re-hospitalization and emergency room visits?
Do you want to make your wishes known about end-of-life care?
When a patient is confronted with a life-limiting prognosis or has been contending with a critical illness, their priorities change. Maintaining the best quality of life often becomes their main concern. But how can this be achieved? There is an excellent option available; it’s called hospice. Hospice is the only healthcare system designed to address the needs of patients and families when a patient is no longer seeking a cure for their terminal illness.
Are you able to focus on what is important to you?
Family members want to do what is right, yet they often don’t know how to provide treatment for their loved one or aren’t available when the care is needed. Simply, the many strenuous tasks needed to care for a patient with serious symptoms may be more than a family caregiver can realistically handle. Hospice reduces those practical burdens by supporting you with professional help, needed equipment, therapy, training, and consultation. As a result, you have more energy and opportunity to spend quality time with your loved one.
Do you know the different disciplines needed on the care team?
It takes a variety of skilled professionals to deal with the physical, social, emotional, and spiritual care needed by a terminally ill patient. Most families find it impossible to assemble such a team. Hospice does this for you, using an interdisciplinary team trained in end of life care. These uniquely skilled professionals know what patients and families go through as they enter hospice and are likely to go through during the end of life journey – so they work closely with you and with one another to optimize care at every stage.
Are you ready for both the expected and unexpected issues?
Hospice strives to make patients as comfortable as possible while making the most of the time that remains. Yet the end of life journey affects more than just the body. It touches all areas of a person's life, as well as their family. So hospice can address:
- Emotional, social, and coping issues: Patients and their families face new stresses which can trigger fear, anxiety, hopelessness, or depression.
- Practical hardships: Some of the problems brought on by critical illness are practical, such as finances, job-related problems, insurance, and legal issues. Often, family members need to be a caregiver even if they have jobs and other responsibilities.
- Spiritual concerns: When people confront a terminal illness, they may look for meaning, question their faith, or seek solace.
The Plan of Care guides the actions of the team.
One the patient is under hospice care, an interdisciplinary group of professionals develops a Plan of Care, spelling out what the family can expect. Using the plan, the team coordinates regular nursing visits, assistance with personal care such as bathing, as well as emotional, social, and spiritual support visits.
Hospice provides needed medications and equipment.
All prescriptions related to pain and comfort management are covered by the hospice benefit and delivered to the home, along with durable medical equipment and supplies such as hospital bed, monitors, nebulizers, walkers, and more. In general, hospice will assist in any way it can to make care as convenient and safe as possible.
Given a choice, where do most people prefer to receive care?
Given a choice, most people would prefer to be at home when they’re sick. It is no different for people with a critical illness, so almost all hospice care is delivered in the home. For different patients, their home may be their private residence or that of a loved one, a hospital, assisted living center, or skilled nursing facility.
The fact that you are exploring hospice is a positive sign. It means you are considering what would be best for a terminally ill patient and their family. Now that you know what hospice is, you may want some additional information.
For answers to your questions, additional information or to discuss a hospice referral, call the Nathan Adelson Hospice admission team at 702.733.0320.
We can be your trusted partner. The philosophy of Nathan Adelson Hospice is to provide support and care so that people with a life-limiting illness may live as fully and comfortably as possible. We do all we can to make sure that no one in our care ends the journey of life alone, afraid or in pain.
