What You Need to Know About 4 Levels of Hospice Care
You should always feel at home. Under hospice care, you will. Hospice care designs treatments to meet the needs of patients, providing them comfort in their own homes. While every hospice regimen is different, four levels of hospice care exist. Here is a quick guide to each level. Curative, Palliative, and Hospice Care Curative, palliative, and hospice care each have their own definitions, though they have some overlap. Curative care creates complete relief from serious illnesses. Doctors diagnose, treat, and prevent symptoms, attempting to cure illnesses. Palliative care provides comfort and pain management for chronic illnesses. Like curative doctors, palliative doctors diagnose, treat, and prevent symptoms. However, palliative doctors specialize in procedures that assist with chronic illnesses. Palliative care can accompany curative care. You will not give up curative treatments if you engage in palliative ones. If a doctor determines that a patient is likely to die within six months, the doctor admits the patient into hospice care. Hospice care uses palliative treatments to treat physical and psychological symptoms alike. However, hospice care employs no curative measures. Though curative and palliative measures include families, hospice care emphasizes the welfare of families. Families have a voice in their loved one's treatments and can receive therapy if desired. Routine Home Care Under routine care, patients remain at home and [...]