What is the difference between Hospice & Palliative Care ???
Palliative Care = Symptom management
Hospice Care = Symptom management + Spiritual care + Pysch-social care + 24 hour nursing care + Pharmacy + DME + Medical Supplies + Volunteers + Bereavement care.
When facing any illness you have a choice between aggressive vs palliative treatments. Aggressive care is medical care the way most of us know today – where we seek hospitalizations, specialists visits, labs and diagnostics in an attempt to identify, treat and cure the disease. Unfortunately for some diseases, we are yet to invent a cure or in some cases the cure may not be practical due to the existence of other health conditions or simply advanced age! The disease or illness now is called terminal diagnosis with a limited life prognosis. If you decided not to pursue aggressive treatments – then palliative care and eventually hospice is the sensible option to ensure comfortable passing at home with family and loved ones at bedside fully supported by the Sovereign hospice and palliative care team.
Palliative care is all about making the patient feel better when dealing with a serious illness – whether it be physical, psych-social, spiritual or financial. Palliative care is a unique feature of the Sovereign Hospice Program. It is one of the realms of hospice where aggressive symptom control is possible.
While hospice & palliative care does not cure any illnesses, we aim to achieve comfort and quality of life. Palliative care may be an option prior to entering hospice where the patient is still aggressively receiving treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation which manifests a host of other symptoms such as pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation, lack of appetite and weight loss. As a person progresses through the natural phases of their terminal disease process, they will eventually need the full spectrum of hospice care services.
Palliative care can be transitional for patients who are facing a life limiting illness but still not within the last 6 months prognosis that usually qualifies a person to receive hospice services under most insurance guidelines. Patients may qualify to receive hospice services earlier only if they decide to forego aggressive treatments measures. Palliative care maybe a bridge for patients still receiving aggressive treatments and outside a 6 month prognosis window required by most health insurance companies.
As a person gets older, the body slowly looses its ability to rebound to a previous healthy status after an episode of illness. Advanced age can disqualify patients from aggressive treatments such as surgeries, chemotherapy, radiation, hormone or pharmacologic treatment modalities. In such cases, Palliative care and eventually hospice can be the safest and life extending treatment of choice that ensures quality than quantity of life.
We work with various healthcare partners to provide up transitional care services from other levels of care such as home health, independent, assisted living, skilled nursing, hospitals to our hospice and palliative care program. We can retroactively set up Palliative Care Programs for your organization. Data shows palliative care can avoid un-necessary treatments costs across the health care continuum and reduce burden of treatments on patients thereby improving patient outcomes.
For more information on our palliative care program, please contact us.