Hospice Home Health Case Study

Caring Hospice is a company that will provide nursing care to patients that are terminally ill. The ultimate goal is to insure the patient is kept as comfortable as possible while maintaining dignity during the dying process. This company will send registered nurses to the patient’s home for routine physical assessments, medication teaching and administration, education about terminal diseases and the dying process. The nursing staff will also create and maintain appropriate plans of care for the multi-disciplinary team to provide holistic care to the patient.

When my mother was diagnosed with a terminal illness, we used the service a hospice team. The team was considered in all aspects due to my mother’s physical and mental needs. They were always sensitive and caring to not only my mom’s needs but my family’s needs.

Death is inevitable. It is one of the only certainties in life. Regardless, people are often uncomfortable discussing death. Nyatanga (2016) posits that the idea of no longer existing increases anxiety and emotional distress in relation to one’s mortality. Because of the difficulty in level of care for end-of-life patients, the patient and the family often need professional assistance for physical and emotional care. Many family caregivers are not professionally trained in medicine, and this is where hospice comes into play. Hospice aims to meet the holistic needs of both the patient and the patient’s family through treatment plans, education, and advocacy. There is a duality of care to the treatment provided by hospice staff in that they do not attempt to separate the patient’s care from the family’s care. Leming and Dickinson (2011) support that hospice, unlike other clinical fields, focuses on the patient and the family together instead of seeing the patient independent of the family. Many times in hospitals, the medical team focuses solely on the goal of returning the patient back to health in order for them to return to their normal lives. They do not take into account the psychological and spiritual components of the patient’s journey and the journey that the family must take as well. For treatment of the patient, Leming and Dickinson agree that hospice does not attempt to cure patients, and instead concentrates solely

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization reported that, as of 2003, there were 3,139 hospice programs in operation in the United States, Guam and Puerto Rico (Wexler & Frey, 2004). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention National Center for Health Statistics said that, in 2000, there were 11,400 combined home health and hospice care agencies, which served 1.5 million patients. It also reported that, at present, more than 90% of hospice care is delivered at home, although based in medical facilities. Hospital-based programs often provide hospice care in a wing or a

Hospice is a philosophy of care. It treats the person rather than the disease and focuses on quality of life. It surrounds the patient and family with a team consisting of professionals who not only address physical distress, but emotional and spiritual issues as well. Hospice care is patient-centered because the needs of the patient and family drive the activities of the hospice team.

The first hospice care was established in 1974. A hospice must make physician, nursing, drugs, and medical supply services available 24/7. It must have social workers and counseling services available to the patient and the family. Hospice also provides therapy and homemaker services when needed in order to be qualified under Medicare certification. Hospice is a combination of special services for terminal ill patients. Beside the medical service, hospice care also supports patients and family psychologically and spiritually to put their emotional suffering at ease. The psychological suffering can weight more than physical suffering. Many terminal ill patients cannot accept the bad news and living under emotional distress. Certified chaplains can work with people from different religions, they focus on the world-view of the patient and family. Using patient personal goal as the measurement, chaplains are the

Care designed to give supportive care to people in the final phase of a terminal illness and focus 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. Aggressive methods of pain control may be used. Hospice programs generally are home-based, but they sometimes provide services away from home in freestanding facilities, in nursing homes, or within hospitals. The philosophy of hospice is to provide support for the patient's

The doctors were pretty sure that Pierre had less than 6 months to live, so he fell well within the guidelines for hospice coverage. Should hospice coverage be limited to those with 6 months or less to live, or should other be covered? 6 months is a random figure and I think that the covering other could help families deal with hospice care a little better; it would give them a better understanding of what hospice-type services is entailed. It also could be too expensive for covering others and how can you know for sure if 6 months is suitable.

Have you ever gone to the Doctors before? The person who weighed you and took your temperature before you got to see the doctor was a nurse. A Nurse is – (verb) 1 to take care of (as a young child or a sick person) 2 to treat with special care ("Webster's dictionary & thesauras for students”). One thing I knew before I started researching is there are many different kinds of nursing. In this paper I will be exploring two different branches of nursing Hospice and Home Health Care.

There were various different hospice organizations that were interviewed Good Neighbor and License Practicing Nurse (LPN), Pamela Larson informs the doctors of any concerns and watches the daily progress of the patients. While Pathways Hospice Michele Desnoes is the Care Provider Liaison and in this position, she will speak on behalf of the patient when the patient can no longer speak for them. Hospice Care of Boulder and Broomfield Counties Leann is a patient care advocate and she deals with the doctors and insurance companies and any medical or other issues that arise. Tony at Asera Care is a

The mission of Brookdale Hospice is to support the patient and their families, both physically and emotionally, during and after the last stage of a loved one’s life. There are four main goals of hospice care here at Brookdale. The first one is to provide comfort for the patients; their focus is on care, not cure. Their goal is also to provide holistic care; they are treating the whole person, not just the patient’s disease. The next goal is to relieve suffering, whether that is physical, emotional or spiritual. The last goal of hospice care at Brookdale is to promote dignity of the patient. It is important that they are taken care, because they have worth just like everyone else.

When analyzing any organizational structure and model of care you must compare and contrast the findings to the characteristics. These findings will demonstrate the organizations primary function, organizational structure, and care deliver models. Evidence practice models help organizations address gaps in patient care and aid in development of congruent delivery of care. Vitas’ organization structural represents a service-line structure that provides hospice services to terminally ill patients. Service-line structures collaborate with other service functions to meet service goal needs. An example of this would be Vitas’ collaboration with hospitals to allow Vitas to have inpatient units for patients with immediate critical care needs. Moreover,

Primarily, the hospice philosophy promoted that patients should participate and choose how the care is administered. Furthermore, patients culd even choose to stay at home, eat how they wanted, and receive pain medications when they pleased. Therefore, one could say commodification didn’t exist as this point. (Rose, p. 313). Secondly, the early philosophy turn its back on regimentation; whereas it favored integrating care into clients lives. In other words, it wanted patients to understand they will people, and not machines as hospitals at the time had made them seem. As a result, the overall philosophy was eliminating schedules of when visitors are allowed, types of foods, and what the patient can wear – giving patients the right to choose (Rose, p. 309).

Hospice is built on the realization that not all illnesses are curable. The main goal of this “philosophy of care” is to help the client remain as comfortable as possible for the remainder of the client’s life. This type of care focuses on the four main areas of human needs: Physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. It can also be classified into different levels of care such as routine, respite, continuous care, and general in-patient. Although the majority of hospice clients are 75 years of age or older, it is reported almost ninety percent of hospice facilities in the United States have admitted terminally ill children. In any setting, with any client, the hospice nurse’s

Hospice is a component of palliative care. A person does not necessarily have to be dying in order to see a palliative care specialist. This is where the service is often underutilized in the hospital. In the 18 months I have been a nurse, I have cared for many patients with chronic illnesses who have dealt with symptoms that have severely impacted their quality of life. Most of the time, it seems as though the patient’s care providers are interested in treating the patient’s acute problems. My experience has been that the symptoms are often overlooked or are being treated in a manner that is to the dissatisfaction and discomfort of the patient.