BackWhich Hospice Can Best Meet Your End-of-Life Needs?
Article submitted by VITAS Innovative Hospice Care(r) of New Jersey North. They can be reached at 973-994-4738.
Families facing a life-limiting illness have many difficult decisions to make. The first step is to gather information from sources you know and trust:
- Ask your doctor, clergy or friends and relatives who have faced similar decisions.
- Get literature from state or local agencies for the aging.
- Meet with local hospices and home health agencies.
- Contact the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO), which represents most hospice programs in the United States, through Caring Connections: toll-free help line at 1-800-658-8898, in Spanish 1-877-658-8896, www.caringinfo.org.
Once you decide that hospice care is the right choice for you and your family, learn as much as you can about the hospice team that would provide care. Be sure you feel comfortable with the professionals you invite to share your life at this special time.
Not all hospices are the same. Some will be better able to meet the needs of your family than others. These questions may be helpful when evaluating individual hospice providers:
Services:
Q: How long have you been in business?
Q: What sources of payment (Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance) are accepted?
Q: Are your services provided in private residences? Assisted living communities? Nursing homes?
Q: How and where do you provide inpatient care?
Q: Do you provide "continuous care" to manage an acute medical crisis at the patient's home?
Q: Do you exclude certain treatments (feeding tubes, artificial respiration, cardiopulmonary resuscitation)?
Q: Do you accept patients who have not executed a "do not resuscitate" order?
Professionalism:
Q: What do other families say about the care they received from you?
Q: Is your staff specially credentialed? How are they trained?
Q: How many patients are assigned to a hospice team member? How are visits scheduled?
Q: How do you respond to after-hours emergencies?
Q: What services do volunteers offer? How are they screened and trained?
Family Interaction:
Q: Are you able to honor a patient's unique wishes (religious preferences, advance directives regarding medical treatments, remaining in the home without a caregiver)?
Q: Does the team train family members to care for the patient at home?
Q: What can the family expect from the team when death occurs?
Q: Explain your bereavement program.
Medical Expertise:
Q: What is the role of the patient's physician during hospice care?
Q: What is the role of the hospice physician?
Q: How experienced are your clinical staff in pain control and symptom management?