Facts About Hospice

Hospice isn’t a place. It’s a type of care that focuses on living; living as fully as possible, up until the end of life.

Hospice offers the services and support that Americans want when coping with life-limiting illness. Considered to be the model for high-quality, compassionate care at the end of life, hospices have a team of care providers that includes expert medical care, pain-and-symptom management, and emotional and spiritual support. All care is tailored to the patient’s needs and wishes.

The goal of hospice is to treat the person instead of the disease, and support the family caregivers as well as the individual. The focus is on quality of life, not the length of time left to live.

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization reports:

• Hospice usage in the U.S. is growing. More than 1.4 million Americans with life-limiting illness were served by the nation’s hospices last year.
  
• The median length of time people receive hospice is 20.6 days (half of patients receive care for more days, half of patients receive care for fewer days). Yet most patients would benefit from hospice earlier -- in fact, the most frequent comment from families is “why didn’t we get hospice sooner?
  
• Less than half of hospice patients have cancer, which surprises many people who mistakenly think hospice only serves cancer patients. The five other leading diagnoses are: heart disease, debility, dementia (this includes Alzheimer’s disease), lung disease, and stroke.
  
• Hospice is paid for by Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance plans, HMOs and other managed care organizations. Hospices also care for people who don’t have insurance and can’t afford to pay for the services.
  
• An estimated 400,000 trained volunteers provide 5.1 percent of patient and family-related services to patients. Volunteers also assist with fundraising, community outreach and administrative work.
  
• Research shows that 8 out of 10 Americans would want to stay in their homes surrounded by family and loved ones if they were faced with a life-limiting illness. Hospice makes this happen for millions of patients each year.

For more information, contact the Hospice Care Group at 1-866-656-9790 or visit http://hospicecarecorp.org/