Frequently Asked Questions
Hospice does not mean that you or your medical professionals are giving up. Hospice is a change of focus to a different set of goals – comfort and quality of life. Comfort care includes physical therapy, spiritual and emotional support, companionship and even the granting of life-long wishes. Hospice gives the patient and their family the opportunity to enjoy life and celebrate the bonds and memories they share.
No. A patient who goes on hospice does not lose the ongoing care they are receiving for things like vision, dental, diabetes and more. A hospice representative should be able to help you understand more about how hospice care interacts with existing insurance and benefits.
Drugs to reduce or eliminate pain can be prescribed by a hospice provider, which may include morphine. Existing medications are removed on a per-case basis, taking into account factors such as drug interactions, quality of life and the family’s wishes. Moments hospice associates will make every effort to explain changes in medication to a patient’s loved ones
Medicare covers six months of hospice care initially, to match the six-month prognosis required for hospice to start. However, treatment can be renewed for as long as doctors believe that the patient has less than six months to live.
A patient or their family have the right to stop hospice at any time to resume curative care. Alternatively, some hospice patients can actually “graduate” off hospice if their life expectation goes beyond six months.
Occasionally a patient’s condition will show a marked improvement while they are on hospice. This can happen for any number of reasons, but if doctors believe the patient will live past six months then hospice care is stopped and the patient is said to have graduated.
By definition, hospice is focused on care of a palliative nature. When starting hospice, curative treatments are stopped in favor of comfort measures. As an alternative to hospice Silverado offers the Palliative Transitions program, which is designed to provide resources and support to individuals and families dealing with a life-limiting illness but who may still be seeking aggressive treatment.
No. An early referral to our hospice program enables patients and families to fully benefit from hospice support and services. Experts agree that patients need at least 60-90 days to maximize the hospice benefit of symptom management and caregiver/family support.
Hospice is for patients of any age with any diagnosis that may have a life expectancy of six months or less.
Home Health focuses on rehabilitation in contrast to hospice’s focus of palliative or comfort care for a life limiting prognosis of six months or less. Patients can change from home health to hospice once they determine that their health goals are comfort versus traditional curative care. Hospice staff is specifically trained in providing aggressive symptom management as well as emotional and spiritual care to patients and their families at end of life. In addition, grief support is provided to families for 13 months following a loved one’s death.
Hospice covers basic medical equipment such as hospital beds and wheelchairs, and medical supplies and medications that are directly related to the terminal illness. Items not covered by Moments Hospice include nutritional supplements, and over-the-counter or personal hygiene items such as tissues, lotion and shampoo.
The hospice nurse obtains the medication order from the physician. The Hospices contracted pharmacy provides the medicines that are related to the patient’s primary diagnosis and are included in the hospice formulary. A 14-day or less supply is ordered at one time. All new medications require approval from Moments Hospice. The nurse reviews the medication supply with caregivers on home visits to ensure necessary medications are on hand.
Visit lengths vary according to the patient and family needs. Most patients are initially seen by a nurse two to three times per week, all calendars and frequencies will be determined based on the patients and family’s preferences. Visits are approximately 60 minutes long.
Other disciplines who may visit include a medical social worker, chaplain, hospice medical director, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech therapist, home health aide, homemaker, music therapist, massage therapist, bereavement specialist and volunteer.
Volunteers do a variety of things including caregiver relief, errands, reading, making scrapbooks, cooking and housekeeping. Moments Hospice has both adult and teen volunteers to support patients and families.
Moments Hospice has an on-call team 24 hour a day 365 day a year they are available to answer any questions you have. If a patient needs to be seen, we will have one of our trained nurses go out to see the patient.
The patient and family can discontinue hospice care at any time. Hospice will ask you to sign a revocation form if you no longer want hospice services.
Although our goal is to be present at the time of death, some scenarios we are unfourtnaley not present. In that case call Moment Hospice. We will send a staff member to the home, notify the physician, the medical examiner and the funeral home. You do not need to call 911.
The team will work with you to ensure your comfort and safety as well as that of your family’s. If they are unable to care for you at home, the team will help with placement at one of our contracted nursing or assisted living facilities.