It can be easy to confuse hospice care with end-of-life care, but it’s important to know that they aren’t the same. In fact, knowing the distinctions between them can result in a better quality of life for your loved one with a chronic condition.
Let’s discuss the differences between hospice and end-of-life care, so you can make an informed decision regarding which type of care is best for your loved one.
Hospice Care vs. End-of-Life Care — The Key Differences
There’s a misconception in our healthcare system that hospice is just end-of-life care. We’re here to emphasize that there’s a lot more to it.
The most important thing to remember is that end-of-life care is just one aspect of hospice care. Although your hospice provider can offer end-of-life care, hospice includes a wealth of services to care for patients well before that end-of-life stage. It’s meant to provide quality-of-life care that helps patients manage chronic conditions at home, as comfortably as possible.
What Is Hospice Care? — The Details
Hospice is care that focuses on quality of life for people who are seriously ill and/or managing chronic conditions. The main goal here is caring, not curing — or, in other words, treating chronic symptoms of illness instead of the illness itself. The hospice care team mainly focuses on controlling patient symptoms and reducing critical events and emergency room visits. Hospice care can be provided for years, but generally takes place during the expected last six months of life.
Hospice care usually takes place in a patient’s own home, but can be done in other settings like nursing homes or hospitals. Depending on each patient’s personalized care plan, hospice can include a range of services, including (but not limited to):
- Regular nurse visits
- Social work
- Physician services
- Spiritual care
- Volunteer services (e.g. household chores, grocery shopping, etc.)
- Personal care attendants
- Bereavement counseling
- Durable medical equipment (e.g. walkers, wheelchairs, beds, etc.)
All in all, hospice care is about helping patients live their lives as comfortably as possible while managing the symptoms of a serious illness, sometimes for extended periods of time.
What Is End-of-Life Care? — The Details
End-of-life care, on the other hand, is care given to patients who are in the last phases of an incurable condition, and who are very near the end of their life. While the same goal of “caring, not curing” applies here, end-of-life care is only provided in the final stages of one’s life — generally for the last expected week.
Some end-of-life services are similar to those of hospice care. However, end-of-life care involves focusing on the services that will help a patient pass peacefully.
Hospice vs. End-of-Life Care: Which Is Right for My Loved One?
Often, hospice care isn’t started soon enough. Doctors, families, and patients can put it off because they confuse hospice care with end-of-life care, or they see it as a means of “giving up.” But with that perspective, they miss out on offering their loved one a more comfortable, peaceful quality of life.
If your loved one is seriously ill with a chronic condition, it’s best to start hospice care as soon as possible — before they get to the end-of-life care stage. This way, they’ll be more comfortable, have their conditions managed by medical professionals, and reduce or eliminate ER visits. They’ll have an overall better quality of life with all the medical, physical, emotional, and spiritual resources they need.
Hospice Is More Than Just End-of-Life Care
At West Michigan Hospice, hospice isn’t just end-of-life care. Here, we believe that hospice is quality-of-life care that helps our patients manage chronic conditions at home. If you’re looking for options for a loved one with a condition like COPD, CHF, cancer, Alzheimer’s, or dementia, you don’t have to do it alone. Contact West Michigan Hospice for help.