There is some confusion as to the purpose and use of comfort care hospice among other institutions that provide care and medical attention to patients who need them. Are hospices like hospitals who cater to the medical and surgical needs of patients who have had operations like breasts correction and others? What services do they offer their clients or patients? Let us learn more about what a comfort care hospice is, its levels of care, its programs, and how to find one.
What is a comfort care hospice?
When we think about hospices, we normally would associate it with retirement homes, home of the aged, and other care facilities that nurse or cater to the elderly. However, it is quite different from all these institutions in a way that hospices help their patients.
Hospice care is a care facility that nurses patients nearing their end of life. These patients are terminally ill and are not expecting to be healed, so their comfort and relief from any pain are the focus of hospices.
What is a hospice for?
If a patient is going to die sooner or later, why can’t he just stay at home and be with their families until their last breath? Well, western customs would have it that terminally-ill patients are taken to a comfort care hospice so that their quality of life may be assured until their death. Some people may consider using hospice as an excuse to free one’s self from the burden of taking care of a sick loved one, called palliative care, or that they are giving up. Other relatives would think that if you put your family member in a hospice, they might not get the medical care they need. But the services of a comfort care hospice simply focuses on the quality of life instead of trying to cure a disease.
Comfort care hospice: Levels of care
Hospice facilities and workers offer four different levels of care, and two of them can happen and be managed in the comfort of your home.
Routine Home Care. This is the most common level of hospice care which includes nursing and home health aide services. If your family member needs help in maintaining their quality of life within the comfort of your home, hospice care can be managed without needing the facilities of a nursing home or such.
Continuous Home Care. If a patient underwent a major surgery but the results do not look promising, he needs help in managing his postoperative symptoms and just continues with his life even after the bad news. Situations like these are when patients need constant nursing care during a time of crisis.
General Inpatient Care. There are instances where short-term care for pain and other uncomfortable symptoms cannot be managed without the facilities of a hospital or a medical institution. A dying or terminally-ill patient may need to be admitted so that his discomforts can be effectively alleviated.
Respite Care. If a patient is being cared for by a designated caregiver, and the carer needs to have a break for a few days or weeks, this level of hospice care is enforced to compensate for the temporary loss of the services of a caregiver.
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