What is Hospice Care?

One of the services Private Home Care, Inc. provides is in-home Hospice care. We wanted to share what this care involves.

Hospice Care is designed to give supportive care to people and their families in the final phase of a terminal illness and focuses on comfort and quality of life, rather than cure. The goal is to enable patients to be comfortable and free of pain, so that they live each day as fully as possible. Hospice programs generally are home-based.

What is Hospice?

1.    Hospice is decided upon once a licensed physician has made the determination that the end of life is near (generally within 6 months).

2.    Hospice is based upon the belief that each person has the right to die pain free and with dignity, and that families will receive the necessary support to allow this.

3.    What is Hospice responsible for? Equipment may include:

• Oxygen tank
• Portable O2 Concentrators
• Bedside Commodes
• Infection control items
• IV supplies (if administering IV medications)

Removal of all equipment should be done within a week of death.
They will also ensure all medications are disposed of properly. Medication disposal should happen upon declaration of death to prevent family members from removing any controlled substance from the home.