Different Types Of Hospice Care

Hospice Home care

Hospice Home Care

Most hospice home care is provided in the comfort of your own home, home of a family member, or wherever patients may call home. A patient’s home could be at their private residence, a family member’s house, a nursing facility, or an assisted living facility.  It’s common for people to confuse hospice care with palliative care, so we’ve tried to make it easy, click the link below for a quick comparison.

24/7 Hospice Home Care

When 24hr medical care is necessary, Nevada Hospice Care has a knowledgeable staff that can manage your needs. Wherever the patient chooses to live, our team will work in shifts to provide 24hr care seven days a week so the patient can avoid hospitalization.

Inpatient Hospice Care

If the patients’ needs cannot be contained at their respective homes. Nevada Hospice Care will be able to provide inpatient beds at local facilities. Here, constant care and the ability to manage uncontrolled symptoms will be delivered until the patient can be discharged to return home.

Respite Hospice Care

Respite care provides a brief “respite” for the primary caregiver of the patient. Limited to five days by admitting patients to an inpatient setting or an existing residence without fulfilling the criteria of hospitalization pain and symptom management.

How Respite Hospice Care Helps Patients by Helping Caregivers

Demands of Caregiving:

Caregiving for someone who is ill can be stressful. Still, when someone is in the final stages of life, caregiving takes on different challenges. Care requirements are often escalated, and the patient may require more frequent medication, specialized wound care, and assistance with feeding and toileting. The uncertainty of when death will occur also puts emotional pressure on the caregiver.

All of this can cause caregivers to lose sleep and live in isolation and worry, which can result in depression, fatigue, and anxiety also referred to as “caregiver burnout.” ¹ Some caregivers facing especially intense burnout may consider quitting, a decision that could require the patient to be placed in a nursing home or other facility.

It is essential that those taking care of someone near the end of life also take care of themselves by getting plenty of rest and making time for themselves away from the demands of caregiving.

End-of-life patients receiving hospice services are eligible for “respite care,” defined and covered by the Medicare Part A hospice benefit. Hospice respite care allows a family caregiver to get a break of up to five consecutive days and nights from caregiving duties while the patient is cared for in a Medicare-certified inpatient facility.

These facilities are often nursing homes, but Nevada Hospice Care has arrangements with several appropriate 24-hour long term care facilities that can provide respite care. Some hospices offer their own inpatient hospice units for occasional respite care.

What Is Respite Care?

Medicare defines respite care as “… short-term inpatient care provided to the individual only when necessary to relieve the family members or the person caring for the individual at home.” ²

Qualifying situations include:

What Is Respite Care?

Members of the hospice care team, who are positioned to notice the symptoms of caregiver burnout, can ask the team physician to provide orders to admit a patient into a Medicare-approved facility. Caregivers themselves can also request respite care for their loved ones to take a break. Some caregivers are reluctant to do so, but this is short-sighted.

Caregivers who take time for themselves return better able to resume their caregiver responsibilities. Respite care can be beneficial to the patient, as well. The fact that their hospice team can call on a 24-hour facility to meet their needs gives some patients a sense of autonomy, and a renewed appreciation of their caregiver after the break.

To get the most from respite care, plan ahead. Depending on your hospice provider, there may be a slight cost, perhaps five percent of the value of the responsibility. Ask questions in advance. Then plan how you will use the respite time. The ARCH National Respite Network and Resource Center recommends that caregivers take regular and sufficient respite periods and make this a meaningful and purposeful break from the care routine.³