Hospice Care is Care Where You Live

Hospice of Hilo is not a place.  It is a comprehensive set of services that comes to you.  The hospice program of care focuses on comfort to give you the highest possible quality of life.

Hospice care focuses on the whole person - body, mind and spirit.

Hospice works to relieve physical symptoms - such as pain, nausea, fatigue and shortness of breath. It seeks to alleviate psychological distress such as depression and anxiety. And it includes social and spiritual support to help you and your loved ones adapt to the anticipated decline associated with advanced, progressive, incurable illness.

The goal of hospice care is to give you choices and as much control as possible over what happens to you. It strives to ensure that your treatments follow your wishes and that you are treated with dignity and respect. Hospice care helps you and your loved ones live life to the fullest up to the last moments.

We provide a range services to meet your individual needs.

Hospice care is provided by an Interdisciplinary Team of professionals. The Hospice of Hilo team consists of medical directors (licensed physicians), Director of Nurses, registered nurse case managers, licensed medical social workers, spiritual counselors and a coordinator of volunteers. The team provides comprehensive medical, nursing and personal care related to the patient's life threatening illness or injury as well as emotional, social and spiritual support for the patient and his/her family. The patient's primary care physician retains overall direction of the patient's care.

We provide you and your loved ones with education and support.

Each patient is assigned an RN case manager who serves as a bridge back to the primary care physician. Day-to-day patient care in the home is provided by a Primary Care Giver who is typically a member of the patient's family. The RN Case manager teaches the Primary Care Giver and other family members all they need to know to confidently care for the patient. The RN Case manager makes regularly scheduled visits to the home and is available by phone as needed. On-call nurses are available after normal business hours and on weekends. Licensed nurse aides provide personal care, such as assistance with bathing, as needed.

We offer a full range of services.

In addition to managing physical pain and symptoms, we offer spiritual counseling, nutritional counseling, grief counseling, physical therapy as needed, prescription medications, medical supplies and equipment, and respite care, as specified in your individualized Plan of Care.

A Medical Social Worker provides practical and emotional support. They can help to link the patient to other community programs as resources.

The spiritual counselor is available to provide spiritual support as requested.

Specially trained volunteers are available to provide respite care, companionship and patient care services as needed.

For patients with health insurance, medications, medical supplies, durable medical equipment and lab services are also provided.

Most health insurance plans - such as Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance programs - provide for hospice care.  Some of these plans cover the cost of hospice care completely while others require a co-payment.  For patients without health insurance, Hospice of Hilo charges a sliding-scale fee based on the person's financial status.

Hospice is the something more that can be done. 

You can call us anytime.

For more information, please call Hospice of Hilo at 808-969-1733 or email hospice@hospiceofhilo.org.

It is our mission to be an integral part of the community, providing compassionate, quality end-of-life care through support, counseling and education.