If you or a loved one are living at home in a skilled nursing setting, you may be concerned about end-of-life care. Will it happen according to your expressed wishes? Will your symptoms be properly addressed, and will your emotional and spiritual needs be attended to? To ensure all this and more, we offer hospice, the gold standard in end-of-life care. Read more to learn about hospice care and its benefits.
What Is Hospice Care?
Hospice is medical care, along with emotional and spiritual support, for patients and their loved ones as they near the end of life. Providing comfort-centered treatments which relieve symptoms of illness and improve the quality of life, this specialized end-of-life care ensures that people pass on according to their expressed wishes.
Is Hospice Care a Better Alternative to Routine Nursing Home Care?
Once a person is determined to be eligible for hospice, they can receive it in a number of ways:
- At the individual’s primary residence according to regular schedule of provider visits
- In a hospice facility or skilled nursing home (if symptoms cannot be adequately managed in the home environment).
Hospice provides respite for caregivers so patients get the treatment they need and loved ones can rest and refresh. Additionally, hospice team members coordinate patient needs for wound care supplies, durable medical equipment, such as a hospital bed, and more. As needed, team
members and volunteers can provide light housekeeping and other services to keep the home environment comfortable and functional.
For all involved, hospice is superior to even the best of routine nursing home care. There are no involved medical treatments and as hospice nurses, physicians, aides, therapists, and nutritionists are highly experienced in the needs of people with terminal conditions, their advice and care is a welcome addition to ordinary skilled nursing services.
Who Can Receive Hospice?
Anyone determined to be in their last six months of life, or less, can begin and continue to receive the services of hospice. Hospice involves a detailed level of supportive care which relieves symptoms, such as pain and shortness of breath, but also allows the individual time and opportunity to prepare for death surrounded by loved ones. Physicians and other qualified hospice personnel, such as registered nurses and physical therapists, determine the possible life span remaining. They work with patients and their families to determine a fully adjustable plan of comfort care, or palliation (symptom relief) for the remaining span of life.
Hospice Care in The State of Pennsylvania
Advantage Home Health & Hospice Care, a 5-star, Medicare compliant agency, delivers compassionate hospice services to people living in the 52 counties surrounding Pittsburgh, PA. Our team is committed to honoring the wishes of people in the last stages of their lives, making them, and their families, feel supported and honored.
After all, death is a natural part of living, and each individual should feel they can make this important transition comfortably and on their own terms. So, contact us today to learn more about how hospice, or any of our health services, can work for you or a loved one in your time of need.
Call today (844) 275-2205, or request more information about hospice, palliative care or any of our other rehab or home health services here.
We look forward to helping you and your loved one’s make life’s last journey the best it can be.
