Why Hospice?

When is it Time?

When to Seek Hospice Care

There may come a time when efforts to cure or slow an illness are not working and can even be harmful, rather than helpful. If that time comes, you should know that there’s a type of palliative care - called hospice - that can help ensure that your final months of life are as comfortable and fulfilling as possible for you and your loved ones.

Hospice is not about giving up; it’s about giving you comfort, control, dignity and quality of life.

Medicare, Medi-Cal, and private insurers will provide coverage for hospice care when physicians diagnose that a patient has six months (or less) to live and curative treatment is no longer beneficial. Depending on the course of the disease, many patients live longer than six months once their symptoms are managed. Unfortunately, too often people don’t receive the support hospice provides until the final weeks or even days of life.

Frequently physicians will continue to pursue treatment because they assume that’s what you would want. Unfortunately, this delay can prevent you from utilizing the time you have left to engage with friends and family while you are able. When a doctor does mention hospice, even casually, you should discuss it immediately. It is important that you and your doctor share the same goals for maintaining the quality of life YOU desire.

Enhancing the quality of life for the time that remains

When to request hospice care is a personal decision, but it’s important to understand that at a certain point, doing “everything possible” may no longer be helping you and your caregivers. Sometimes the burdens of a treatment outweigh the benefits. For instance, an aggressive treatment might give you another month of life, but make you feel too ill to enjoy that time. Palliative doctors can help you assess the advantages and disadvantages of specific treatments.

Hospice care neither hastens nor postpones death, and choosing it does not mean there’s no turning back. Treatments that are important to your care for quality of life usually are continued. If your illness improves, you can leave hospice care at any time and return if and when you choose to.

Following are some signs that if you have a life limiting illness, you may experience better quality of life with hospice care.