How Hospice Works: Everything You Need to Know
When you hear the term “hospice care,” dozens of questions might pop into your head. What is it? Who is eligible? How does hospice work? With so many questions, there are so many corresponding answers.
Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care is dedicated to helping educate patients and their loved ones so that they can, in turn, live a better life. We understand that finding the right care can be a difficult and confusing journey, especially if you don’t know how hospice works. Allow the following information and resources to help simplify that journey.
What is hospice?
Hospice is more than just treatment for those facing a terminal illness. It’s a philosophy of care. Crossroads specializes in easing the pain, discomfort, and distress patients experience, whether it’s physical, emotional, or spiritual by surrounding each patient with a team of professionals.
A patient’s care team will coordinate the ordering, delivery, and set up of all necessary medication, hospice medical equipment, and hospice supplies. Upon delivery, the Crossroads team will instruct patients and caregivers on how to properly use the medical equipment and supplies provided.
The hospice care team is complete with certified physicians, nurses, social workers, home health aides and more to support both the wants and needs of each patient. The team also helps to guide a patient’s family members through the care process and provides additional support to them during treatment and after the loss of a loved one.
Who is eligible for hospice?
Hospice care is meant to help patients live the best possible quality of life. Those who qualify for treatment face serious, life-limiting medical conditions which require support and assistance on a day-to-day basis. Most often, hospice provides care to people affected by medical conditions such as cancer, heart disease, COPD (emphysema) and advanced dementia.
Use these hospice criteria guidelines to help further determine if you or your loved one is eligible for hospice care.
Where can I find hospice care?
Hospice is not only for those who are housebound or bedridden. How in-home hospice works is this: care is given wherever a patient calls home. This can be in a house, a long-term care facility, assisted living or retirement community, rest homes, or hospitals. Depending on each patient’s needs, the hospice team can visit anywhere from once per day to a couple times a month.
Crossroads provides hospice care in the home and in facilities throughout the Midwest, Northeast and Southern Regions of the United States. Each of our locations offer the same high-quality services and programs to care for those who qualify for hospice.
When is it time for hospice?
Many families decide to call hospice during the final days or weeks of their loved ones’ lives, unaware of the fact their loved one was eligible for hospice care much earlier. One of the most common things we hear from the families of patients here at Crossroads is “I wish I had known sooner.”
If you or a loved one is experiencing frequent visits to the ER, an increase in falls, a decline in their ability to perform daily tasks, changes to their mental abilities, progressive weight loss and skin tears, infections, or other signs of deteriorating health, it may be time to have the hospice conversation. If your loved one’s condition improves during hospice care, they have the option to end it at any time and continue to receive care at a later date.
Think your loved one could benefit from the services and support of a hospice program? Contact Crossroads today.
How is hospice paid for?
There are several options available to patients, families, and caregivers when it comes time to paying for hospice services. Many individuals have hospice care costs covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or a private insurance company. If you are not covered by one of these options, Crossroads will work with patients and their family members to ensure our end-of-life care and services remain an option for your loved one.
Crossroads not only provides patients with compassionate hospice care and treatment, but their families with the support they need to get through troubling times. If you want more information regarding “how does hospice work?” call us at 1-888-564-3405 or visit our website to learn more about how hospice works and find the answers to common hospice questions.
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