What We Do

1. What is hospice care?

Hospice care is a special kind of care to enhance life for a terminally ill patient and his/her family. Comfort care and supportive care are provided by a team of healthcare professionals and volunteers, allowing patients to spend their days in comfort and dignity, focusing on living. The hospice philosophy seeks to allow the terminally ill person to be at home, close to family and friends, while still under professional medical supervision.

The role of hospice is to provide professional medical care, to manage pain and other symptoms, and to assist the patient and family to attain a degree of mental and spiritual preparation for death that is meaningful and satisfactory to them.

2. What are the eligibility criteria for hospice care?

a) Referral from the patient's attending physician
b) Certification from the patient's attending physician that the patient is terminally ill and has a limited life expectancy of 6 months or less if the disease follows its usual course
c) Patient and/or caregiver consent for care
d) Primary caregiver in the home (family member or other) for daily care when the patient's condition necessitates
e) Patient is no longer undergoing or seeking curative therapy
f) Patient resides within Hospice of Montgomery's service area.

3. What specific assistance does hospice provide?

An interdisciplinary team of healthcare professionals and specially trained volunteers provide intermittent services in the home. The patient's attending physician and hospice staff will work with the patient and family to set up an individualized plan of care. The hospice team members will make regular visits - visit frequency is based on patient/family need. A nurse is on-call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to give the patient and family support and care when needed.

Hospice services include:

• Pre-admission consultation
• Nursing services
• Medical Social Work services
• Home Health Aide services for assistance with the patient's personal care
• Spiritual care services consistent with the patient's/family's spiritual beliefs
• Trained volunteers to provide companionship and assist with errands
• Case management and coordination with attending physician
• Family education and training in patient care
• Pain and/or symptom management
• Emotional support services
• Bereavement follow-up to hospice family for up to one year after the patient's death

Additional services covered by Medicare, Medicaid or Private Insurance Hospice Benefit include:

• Pharmacy services - medications for symptom control and pain relief
• Medical equipment and medical supplies
• Inpatient respite care for caregiver relief (in a contracted hospital)
• Inpatient care for symptom management (in a contracted hospital)
• Nutritional, physical, occupational and speech therapies

4. When should a decision about entering a hospice program be made?

At any time during a life limiting illness, it is appropriate to discuss all of a patient's care options, including hospice. Most people are uncomfortable with the idea of stopping an all-out effort to beat the disease. Hospice staff members are highly sensitive to these concerns and always available to discuss them with the patient and family.