Hospice Eligibility
Our experienced staff is available to consult with the patients, families and loved ones to provide them with the necessary information for them to make the best decision. We recommend meeting with a hospice professional to discuss the services available to determine if hospice is the best option for your patient. It’s never too early to evaluate whether hospice services can benefit your patient. We often hear from family members and loved ones who say: "We wish we would have talked with a hospice provider earlier."
Below is a list of questions to help determine if a patient meets the criteria to receive hospice services:
- Is the current treatment no longer helping or working?
- Have they experienced one or more life-threatening infections during the past six months?
- In your best judgment is the patients prognosis of six months or less if the disease or illness runs its normal course?
- Have there been multiple trips to the hospital or emergency room during the past year?
- Has there been unintentional weight loss and/or decreased food intake?
- Is the patient having difficulty swallowing?
- Has there been a continued decline their ability to function everyday tasks?
- Is there no further curative treatment available?
- Should the care of the patient focus on providing comfort or relieving symptoms rather than curing the disease or illness?
- Does the caregiver need support to help care for the patient?
- Are there any expectations for a meaningful recovery?
The transition to hospice often occurs patients make the decision to stop curative and aggressive medical treatment and focus on comfort. Comfort care or palliative care focuses on managing the pain and symptoms of the illness - rather than attempting to cure it.
Common hospice diagnosis include:
- Dementia
- Alzheimer's Disease
- Cancer
- Heart Disease
- Kidney Disease
- Liver Disease
- Lung Disease
- Stroke/Coma
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Parkinson's Disease
- ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)