1. Understanding Hospice Care
   1. Who Should be Referred for Hospice Care?
   2. Types of Hospice Care
   3. Reimbursement for Services
   4. Guide for Hospice Eligibility
2. Capital Hospice Services
3. Educational Services
4. Primary Hospice Contacts

Understanding Hospice Care

Who Should be Referred?

Back in the 1970s hospice was viewed primarily as care for end-stage cancer patients.  But the types of illnesses in patients served by hospice have evolved over the years.

Today, slightly fewer than half of our patients do have cancer, but we care for and have expertise in the care of patients with many life-limiting illnesses and conditions, such as:

• AIDS
• Alzheimer’s and other dementias
• ALS, also known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”
• Cardiomyopathy
• Congestive Heart Failure
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Emphysema
• Heart disease
• Liver disease
• Renal or respiratory/pulmonary disease (end stage)
• Stroke

Sometimes in the last months of life, people may simply lose weight and become weaker for no apparent reason.  This is called "Adult Failure to Thrive" and meets the medical criteria for hospice services.

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Read Quality of Life Matters May-July 2010

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