How much do you really know about hospice?
PV News
By Betty Lukas
Aug 5, 2015
You never hear conversation about hospice at mid-life cocktail parties. When the subject does come up at all, it generally occurs during those senior center potlucks.
The reason? Hospice is related to dying, and whether they admit it, older people know deep down that dying is their unbidden-but-inevitable destiny. Just as it is for everyone at some time or other. But for older people, it is closer.
Hospice, by definition and according to its purveyors, mollifies that final assignment. “Hospice care is provided to those who have decided that palliative rather than curative care is desired... the focus is comfort and quality of life,” explains the Providence Trinity Care Hospice Booklet.
In more accessible language, hospice is dedicated to keeping its patients pain-free and positive as they move toward death.
Given its appealing promise, how does one qualify for hospice? It’s really quite simple: Your physician verifies that you have a “life-limiting illness” (defined as six months or less to live) and that you choose the hospice promise of comfort rather than continued medical efforts to cure you.
Once that big decision is made, an entire team of professional care-givers takes over. That team includes your very own hospice physician, a nurse, clinical social worker, certified home health aides, chaplain, and even a physical therapist or similar specialist if one is needed.
As for the nurses involved, “they provide the direct skilled nursing care in your home, and coordinate your plan of care as developed by your interdisciplinary hospice team,” according to the booklet.
The patient also receives free medications, free medical supplies and free medical equipment. Such major-duty items as a complete hospital-type bed, commode, front-heeled walker and a wheelchair are among the equipment that might be needed.
Trained volunteers visit patients to relieve family members who need a break from their care-giving duties. The only significant expense a hospice patient can expect is the services of professional care-givers. Some work for agencies and others are independent operators. Peninsula Seniors headquarters (310-377-3003) is a good source for agency pamphlets.
As for the overall expense, Medicare or Medi-Cal and private insurance pay nearly all the bills. Hospice service in more recent historical time goes back to 1948 when Dr. Cecily Saunders began offering such compassionate care to the terminally ill in London. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross introduced the practice to this country in the ‘60s. In fact, she spoke so passionately to Congress that, although it took a decade, legislators approved a Medicare hospice benefit in 1986.
What is essential and what few older people seem to know is that the interdisciplinary team that has tracked your progress also determines the length of your stay. If it sees major improvements after 90 days, you’re excused — with the option to return, of course.
I’m anticipating the same opportunity.
Providence Trinity Care Hospice is one of several similar agencies serving patients at the family home or at assisted living facilities in Los Angeles County.
Betty Lukas is a freelance writer, a former award-winning writer for the Palos Verdes Peninsula News and Los Angeles Times, and regular contributor to the News.