What is the difference between Palliative Care and Hospice Care?
Hospice care is designed strictly for patients with imminent terminal conditions. Palliative care supports you and your family in managing your illness while you are receiving curative therapy. Discuss with your doctor the benefits of palliative care based on your particular condition. FOR MORE INFORMATION To learn more about the Palliative Care Program at Orange Regional, or if you have any questions, please call 845-342-7205.
Hospice care is for a person with a life limiting illness that has been determined by a person’s physician. Palliative care is sometimes interchanged with the term hospice but for our agency it is a special program of the Holyoke Visiting Nurses where patients have a special trained nurse in symptom management for the patient that may have a life limiting illness but continues to pursue treatment.
The goals of palliative care and hospice care are the same: to relieve pain and suffering and to improve the quality of life. However, the patients who receive the care are different. Palliative care Helps cancer patients and their families at any time during the illness, starting when cancer is diagnosed. It can be given along with cancer treatment, and it can continue after cancer treatment is completed. Palliative care usually is provided in the hospital, the doctor’s office, a clinic, or the patient’s home. Some patients receive palliative care for years. Hospice care This is a type of palliative care that is focused on the end of life. It is for patients whose cancer cannot be treated. For a patient to be eligible for hospice services, the doctor must certify that the patient is expected to live six months or less. Hospice care can be given at the patient’s home, in the hospital, in assisted-care living, or in a nursing home. Some hospice organizations have facilities where patien
Hospice is a multidisciplinary team approach offered to patients with a life-threatening illness who have a prognosis of six months or less, and for whom life-prolonging measures offer no additional benefit or no longer meet their goals. Palliative care uses the same interdisciplinary approach but brings it further upstream during the course of the illness. The key point here is that palliative care may be used in conjunction with all other appropriate medical treatments and procedures, including disease-modifying and life-prolonging treatments. It allows for relief of suffering in conjunction with usual medical care. And when medical options become limited or exhausted, instead of having to say “I’m sorry, there is nothing left that I can do for you,” palliative care allows for a smoother transition to end-of-life care and hospice. What Constitutes Good Palliative Care? • Early recognition of the need for palliative care, • Communication between the physician and patient about end-of-
