Hospice Experts Advocate for Early Admission to Hospice

The Herald-Mail (Story from Hospice of Washington County)

“Former President Jimmy Carter’s months-long time in hospice has helped tens of millions of Americans realize that hospice isn’t a brink-of-death service, that it helps patients and families focus on quality of life and not just length of life,” observed Hospice of Washington County CEO Sara McKay.

With a physician, nurse practitioner, nurse, certified nursing assistant, social worker, chaplain, bereavement specialist and hospice-trained volunteers, “the hospice team is structured to manage the patient’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs and support the patient’s loved ones while helping them care for their loved one,” McKay added.

According to Lee-Anne West, MD, physician executive and chief consultant for Hospice of Washington County, one of the biggest hurdles to overcoming resistance to a timely hospice admission is the misnomer that signing up for hospice means that a patient is giving up and that care stops with a hospice admission. “Nothing could be further from the reality of what hospice care entails,” West explained. A major difference, she noted, “is that before a patient enters hospice, the focus isn’t on the patient but rather is on fighting the disease—even when those treatments aren’t helping. After a patient enters hospice, the focus is solely on the patient’s comfort and dignity, managing pain and other symptoms, thus allowing the patient to enjoy being at home, in a comfortable setting, surrounded by family and friends.”

Instead of endless trips to a hospital emergency room for a patient with a limited time left to live, “the care comes to the patient in hospice,” she explained.

Having worked in hospice and palliative care for more than 18 years, West has seen numerous studies over the years that have demonstrated that patients who enroll in hospice live longer than patients with a similar diagnosis and similar demographics who continue aggressive curative treatments up until they are near death. “For many patients who come on hospice earlier, life expectancy can increase by as much as one to three months,” West stated. “When you step back from doing everything to treat the disease, the patient is allowed to live in the moment. The psychological pressure often melts. Hospice patients tend to live longer when they elect the hospice benefit earlier.”…

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