It’s not news we ever want to hear, but sometimes, doctors will inform us that cure is no longer possible for our loved one, and that the best possible care is to offer comfort, and try to ease the way for everyone involved, patient and family.
That is where hospice comes in.
The goal of hospice is to decrease the pain and fear of the dying process. When it is agreed that a patient’s condition is terminal, that the prognosis is no more than six months, that treatment will no longer prolong life, hospice offers the best care possible.
The goal of hospice care is to treat pain and distress — of both the patient and their family — whether that distress is physical, emotional, or spiritual.
Hospice patients and their families are assigned a team of doctors, nurses, counselors, social workers, and, if desired, chaplains, to make the patient’s remaining days more comfortable. Although curative therapies are stopped, any treatment that a therapy — such as physical, occupational, or speech therapy — improves the patient’s quality of life is provided.
Hospice care extends even beyond the patient’s passing; it includes bereavement counseling for the family.
We all want a cure, but when cure is no longer possible, we can still offer care and comfort. Everyone deserves a good end.
At the Regency Nursing and Rehabilitation Centers, we are uniquely qualified to care for the needs of seniors — including their needs and the needs of their families, at the end of life.
In addition to hospice care, Regency offers a full continuum of care, including exceptional short-term rehabilitation, sub-acute care, long-term nursing, a range of specialty programs and complex clinical services, hospice care and temporary respite care.
Our compassionate, personalized approach has established our long-standing and unparalleled reputation for excellence.
Diane Meier and Amy Kelley write: “Because of its focus on quality of care, the Affordable Care Act is poised to expand access to palliative care services for the sickest, most vulnerable, and therefore most costly, 5 percent of patients, who drive about 50 percent of all healthcare spending. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with serious illnesses that focuses on providing relief from symptoms, pain, and stress, whatever the diagnosis or stage of illness. Patients (and family caregivers) receiving palliative care experience improved quality of life, better symptom management, lower rates of depression and anxiety, and improved survival. Because patient and family needs are met, crises are prevented, thereby directly reducing need for emergency department and hospital use and their associated costs.”
Currently, most formal palliative care programs operate in clinic and hospital settings, where there is evidence that these programs enhance the quality of care, increase patient and family satisfaction, and decrease health care costs. The failure of palliative care to take hold in nursing homes stems from several factors: regulations that favor rehabilitation over palliative care; inadequate staff knowledge and skill in palliative care; financial disincentives (e.g., higher reimbursement for skilled nursing care and invasive therapies); misconceptions about palliative care; and lack of reimbursement for specialized palliative care.
Hospice agency/nursing home partnerships. There are three models for delivering palliative care in nursing homes. The first model involves partnerships between hospice agencies and nursing homes. This approach has grown substantially since the late 1980s, when CMS determined that eligible nursing home residents could access the Medicare hospice benefit. Around a third of all nursing home decedents now use the Medicare hospice benefit before death. Hospice supplements the resources available at nursing homes, introducing services such as expert symptom management, additional personal care, spiritual counseling, social work services, and volunteer and bereavement services. Although some authors have raised questions of the fit between Medicare’s configuration of the hospice benefit and the nursing home setting, hospice use in NHs is associated with decreased unnecessary therapies, fewer hospitalizations, improved pain and symptom management, and higher family satisfaction with care.
Source: Health Affairs Blog
