Qualifying for Hospice

• 1). Obtain a diagnosis of a terminal illness with a life expectancy of six months or less. Patients in hospice care often live longer than six months after placement. Sometimes the patient can survive for several years. As long has there has been a documented progression in the illness every six months, hospice care can continue.
  
  
• 2). Discuss options with the patient, the physician, family members and anyone else who is involved in patient care. Hospice works to make the patient comfortable rather than to provide a cure.
  
  If the patient agrees that hospice care is appropriate, a physician can make the referral to a hospice provider, thus eliminating the need for you to choose one yourself.
  
  
• 3). Review the patient's finances. Medicare, Medicaid, most private insurance plans and most health maintenance organizations (HMOs) typically cover hospice care. However, they do not generally cover nursing home room and board, medical treatments not related to the terminal illness and treatments aimed at cure of the illness.
  
  

Finding a Hospice

• 1). Ask the patient's physician, nursing home staff, friends and relatives who have experience with hospice for recommended hospice services.
  
  
• 2). Decide whether you would like the patient to remain in the nursing home or be moved to a hospice facility or elsewhere.
  
  
• 3). Contact several hospices. Ask about services provided for the patient and family members. Ask about all costs involved and whether the hospice service covers the patient's geographic region.
  
  
• 4). Tour the hospice facility. Is it clean? Are the staff members professional, courteous and compassionate? Do the patients and their families seem comfortable? Visit the facility several times, if possible, so you can observe operations at different times of day. Ask hospice personnel for the results of the facility's last self-assessment under the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's Standards of Practice.
  
  

Admission to Hospice

• 1). Contact the hospice and request service. However, the physician may have already done so (see Step 2 in Qualifying for Hospice).
  
  
• 2). Meet with hospice personnel to discuss the patient's needs and sign consent forms. Care generally begins within 48 hours of the referral. If the patient is clearly in the active stage of dying, hospice service can begin sooner.
  
  
• 3). Arrange to transport the patient (if necessary) to the new facility.
  
  
• 4). If the patient is conscious, explain what is happening and answer any questions she may have. She may be frightened, angry or sad. Provide any comfort you can. Hospice staff will also be able to provide comfort.
  
  If the patient is unconscious, continue to tell him what is happening. Hearing is the last of the senses to end.