Hospice Care for Patients and Families Following a Terminal
Diagnosis
The hospice program of care for terminally ill patients and their
families is essentially end-of-life palliative care. Palliative
care focuses on comfort, not on cure. It aims to give the patient
the highest possible quality of
life instead of trying to preserving and prolonging life at any cost.
Palliative care focuses on the whole person—body, mind
and spirit. It involves vigorous efforts 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 also
includes social and spiritual support to help patients
and families adapt to the anticipated decline associated with advanced,
progressive, incurable diseases. The goal of palliative care is
to give patients choices and as much control as possible over what
happens to them. It strives to ensure that their treatments are
congruent with their wishes and that they are treated with dignity
and respect. Palliative care aims to help patients and their families
to live life to the fullest up to the last minute.
Hospice care is provided by an Interdisciplinary Team (IDT) of professionals.
The Hospice of Hilo IDT consists of our two medical directors (licensed
physicians), one RN clinical team manager, seven registered nurse-case
managers, three licensed medical social workers, a spiritual counselor
and a director of volunteers. The IDT provides comprehensive medical,
nursing and personal care related to the patient's terminal disease
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.
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 (PCG) 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 competently
and confidently care for the patient. The RN Case manager make regularly
scheduled visits to the home and is available to the patient and
Primary Care Giver by phone as needed. On-call nurses are available
after normal business hours and on week-ends. Licensed nurse aides
provide personal care, such as assistance with bathing, as needed.
A Medical Social Worker provides practical and emotional support.
The MSW can help to link the patient to other community programs
as resources
The spiritual counselor is available to provide spiritual support
as requested. These core services of the IDT are usually paid for
by the patient's health insurance provider (including Medicare and
Medicaid). For patients without health insurance, Hospice of Hilo
provides the core IDT services at no cost.
For patients with health insurance, medications, medical supplies,
durable medical equipment and lab services are also provided.
Specially trained volunteers are available to provide respite care, companionship and patient care services as needed.
For more information, please call Hospice of Hilo at 808-969-1733.
|
