A major misconception about entering hospice care is that all medical treatment comes to a stop.
In fact, Capital Hospice patients receive expert medical care, but with a different focus. Instead of seeking to cure the patient, the hospice team addresses a range of problems, from intense pain to depression, that dying people and their loved ones often suffer.
The shift is from aggressively seeking a cure to providing expert pain and symptom management, or palliative care. The goal is to help the patient and loved ones to have the best quality of life possible during this important time.
As you know, patients with life-limiting illness often experience intense discomfort: physical pain, anxiety, restlessness, constipation, nausea, secretions, shortness of breath, and seizures, for example.
In addition, end of life is a time that generates intense feelings - anxiety, isolation, grief, and confusion - not only for the patient, but for everyone who loves that person.
Unfortunately, many doctors focus solely on cure and know little about how to manage pain and symptoms in patients with a life-limiting illness. And doctors rarely have the time or training to address the pain and suffering of the patient’s loved ones.
Our Capital Palliative Care Consultants are physicians and other health care professionals with advanced training in pain and symptom management. Working together with patients and their personal physicians, they take an holistic approach, looking for ways to help with physical, psychosocial and spiritual domains that become so important at this stage of life.
Hospice patients may require differing intensities of care during the course of their disease. Capital Hospice provides the four levels of care defined by Medicare:
Routine Home Care.
As long as the patient’s symptoms are under control, the hospice team supports the caregivers in providing this level of care in the home setting, whether that is a private residence, assisted living or long-term care facility such as a nursing home.
Almost all Capital Hospice patients spend more than 95 percent of their hospice experience in routine home care.
Continuous Care.
In the event of a medical or psychosocial crisis, 24-hour care is provided in the home for brief periods.
Inpatient Respite Care.
Caregivers occasionally need to take short breaks to maintain their own health. In this instance, the patient can be transferred to the Halquist Memorial Inpatient Center—a Capital Hospice facility in Arlington, Virginia—for a short-term stay (up to five days) while the caregiver takes a break.
General Inpatient Care.
When symptoms can’t be controlled in a home setting, the patient can be moved to the Inpatient Center for a short-term stay until the patient’s condition is under control.
Some patients may be moved to a nearby hospital for this level of care. A patient residing in a nursing home will be moved to an inpatient bed in that facility.
At some point, you may need care that cannot be provided at home. When the need arises, Capital Hospice operates a facility offering short-term acute symptom management.
Located in Arlington, Virginia, the Halquist Memorial Inpatient Center is a 15-bed facility staffed for specialized care. Patients, brought here by specialized medical transport, usually stay for less than a week.
Generally, a patient is admitted for one of four reasons:
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