What is Hospice & Palliative Care

What Is Hospice?

Hos­pice is designed to bring per­son­al­ized, sen­si­tive, com­pas­sion­ate health care and sup­port to indi­vid­u­als and their fam­i­lies fac­ing the advanced stages of a life-lim­it­ing ill­ness. Hos­pice rec­og­nizes that a patient who is deal­ing with the end of life seeks and deserves com­fort in every aspect of his/​her life. Hos­pice embraces the real­i­ty that, when a cure is not pos­si­ble, the end of life can still be filled with love and comfort.

What Is Pal­lia­tive Care?

Pal­lia­tive Care focus­es on reliev­ing and pre­vent­ing the suf­fer­ing of patients. Unlike hos­pice carepal­lia­tive med­i­cine is appro­pri­ate for patients in any stage of dis­ease, includ­ing those under­go­ing treat­ment for cur­able ill­ness­es and those liv­ing with chron­ic dis­eases, as well as patients who are near­ing the end of life.

Pal­lia­tive med­i­cine uti­lizes a mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary approach to patient care, rely­ing on input from physi­cians, phar­ma­cists, nurs­es, chap­lains, social work­ers, psy­chol­o­gists, and oth­er allied health pro­fes­sion­als in for­mu­lat­ing a plan of care to relieve suf­fer­ing in all areas of a patient’s life.

This mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary approach allows the pal­lia­tive care team to address phys­i­cal, emo­tion­al, spir­i­tu­al, and social con­cerns that arise with advanced illness.