What Are The Four Levels of Hospice Care?
What Are The Four Levels of Hospice Care?
In the hospice field, there are four levels of care. These levels describe how much time a patient spends in a particular level of care and the extent to which they are involved in making decisions about their own treatment.
Hospice Care in a Home
Patients in hospice care in a home typically receive around-the-clock nursing care and assistance with activities of daily living. They make decisions about their own treatment but may allow family members to help make decisions on their behalf if they are comfortable doing so.
Continuous Hospice Care
Patients in continuous hospice care spend most of their time in homes or other residential facilities. They may receive occasional visits from health professionals, but they mostly rely on the nurses and aides for care. The goal is to keep patients as comfortable and safe as possible while making decisions about their care.
Inpatient Hospice Care
Patients in inpatient hospice care spend a few days or weeks at a time in a hospital or other long-term care facility. They receive around-the-clock nursing and support from a team of health professionals who specialize in hospice care. In addition, they have more opportunities to make decisions about their personal care and receive emotional support from other patients in the hospice unit.
Respite Care
Respite care is a type of hospice care that helps patients who cannot live at home or in an inpatient hospice setting. Patients typically receive around-the-clock nursing and support from a team of health professionals, but they do not have the opportunity to make decisions about their own care. Respite care is designed to give patients a break from their regular routine and help them return to their everyday lives as quickly as possible.
The hospice is the last level of medical care that a patient receives before death. It is comfort care brought to every patient, whether in a private home, a nursing home, assisted living community, residential care facility for the elderly, or hospice house. Hospice programs provide patients with their own room or bed and personal care in their own homes. This type of program provides palliative (end-of-life) care that can include pain management and symptom control along with psychosocial support. Hospice programs also help families manage the process of dying and may provide education about end-of-life options such as funeral services and organ donation. Hospice programs are not intended to cure illness but rather to improve the patient's quality of life and comfort until death occurs.
