Can hospice care be given at home?
Yes. Hospice care most often takes place at home.
It can also be provided in special inpatient facilities, hospitals, and nursing homes, and it can take place alongside professional home care if necessary. Where hospice happens, and exactly which services are offered, can depend on where you live and the philosophy of the hospice itself.
Hospice services generally include medical and nursing care, medical supplies and equipment, and drugs for managing cancer-related symptoms and pain. They also include short-term inpatient care, volunteers to give caregivers a break, counseling, spiritual care, social work services, and grief support.
The hospice team usually includes doctors, nurses, home health aides, social workers, clergy or other counselors, and trained volunteers.
For coverage, the attending doctor and the hospice medical director certify a life expectancy of 6 months or less. Care can continue past 6 months if the hospice doctor recertifies.
Most insurance plans, including Medicare, cover hospice care.
If symptoms cannot be controlled at home, that is not the end of hospice. Short-term inpatient care is part of the benefit.
Because not all hospices provide the same services, it helps to ask each one what they offer and to ask your health care team which providers they would suggest. A few questions separate them quickly. How fast can a nurse be at the house overnight? Do you have your own inpatient unit, or do you use a partner hospital? How many visits per week should we expect at the start? And what happens if we cannot manage at home anymore?
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