Not an instrument but an orchestra of care!
What is Hospice Care?
Hospice care is a specialized type of care which focuses on the patients' and the caregivers’ well being and comfort as opposed to treating or curing the illness the patient is suffering from. Hospice care provides compassionate care for people in the last stages of irreversible illnesses, so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible.
The hospice philosophy accepts death as the final stage of life. While it affirms life, it does not try to hasten or postpone death. A qualified team of professionals work together to manage symptoms so that a person’s last days may be spent with dignity and quality, surrounded by their loved ones.
Hospice care is very empowering in that it gives the person and the family the autonomy to control the outcome of one’s life.
Facts about the history of Hospice
The term “hospice” can be traced back to medieval times, referring to a place of shelter and rest for weary or ill travelers.
The name was first applied to specialized care for dying patients by physician Dame Cicely Saunders, who began her work with the terminally ill in 1948 and eventually went on to create the first modern hospice—St. Christopher’s Hospice—in a residential suburb of London.
Saunders introduced hospice to the U.S. during a 1963 visit to Yale University; her lecture during this visit launched the development of hospice care as we know it today.
In the late 1960s Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross taught about the concept of terminally ill patients participating in the decisions that affect how they will live during their final days.
In 1982, Congress included a provision to create a Medicare Hospice Benefit.
Today the hospice philosophy of care is central to models for palliative and end-of-life care and is covered by most insurance plans.
Services provided by Symphony Hospice
• Intermittent visits by your hospice team: nurse, social worker, hospice aide, chaplain, volunteer and/or others as authorized.
• Coordination of care between physician, Hospice team, family members, and caregivers.
• 24-hour per day phone availability for nursing consults to answer questions and/or address disease-related symptoms; after-hours nursing visits as determined by the Hospice nurse.
• Medications for symptom management related to the hospice diagnosis and authorized by Symphony Hospice.
• Medical equipment and supplies related to your hospice diagnosis and authorized by Symphony Hospice.
• Short-term (up to five days) respite care in a skilled nursing facility (SNF).
• Short-term (usually three to five days) inpatient care for complicated symptom management as determined by your Hospice nurse, attending physician, and Hospice medical director.
• Office visits with your attending physician.
• Ambulance transport to and from respite or short-term inpatient care (as determined by your Hospice nurse or social worker).