Palliative Care vs Hospice Care: Comparative Guide for Caregivers

Hospice and palliative care provide a more dignified and comforting alternative to spending your final months in the impersonal setting of a hospital, apart from family, friends, pets, and all you know and love for many seriously sick people. This guide for caregivers helps you delve deeper into palliative care vs hospice care. 

Palliative medicine helps you manage pain, whereas hospice care focuses on improving the quality of life for both you and your family. Choosing hospice or palliative care is not about abandoning hope or hastening death, but rather about receiving the most suitable and high-quality care in the latter stages of life.

Hospice care is generally reserved for those with a life expectancy of six months or less, and it consists of palliative care (pain and symptom alleviation) rather than ongoing curative measures, allowing you to live your final days with purpose, dignity, grace, and support. While some hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare institutions offer hospice care on-site, it is mostly given to patients in their own homes. This allows you to spend your final days in a familiar and comfortable setting, surrounded by loved ones and supported by hospice workers.

The word “palliative care” refers to any type of care that relieves symptoms and can be beneficial at any stage of an illness, even if there is still hope of a cure through other means. It is a method of treating serious sickness that emphasizes the treatment of pain, symptoms, and mental stress. Palliative treatments may be used in some circumstances to ease the adverse effects of curative treatment, such as nausea from chemotherapy, which may enable you to accept more intense or longer-term treatment.

Hospice vs palliative care – Mayo Clinic

Let us learn how the Mayo Clinic defines hospice vs palliative care. Palliative care is for those with chronic illnesses, while hospice care is for people with terminal illnesses and a prognosis of six months or fewer to live.

Palliative care is a type of specialist medical care that is more focused on relieving pain and other symptoms associated with a serious illness. It can also assist people in dealing with the negative effects of medical therapies. Palliative treatment is accessible whether a patient’s condition is treatable or not.

Hospice care is a type of palliative care for persons whose illnesses have progressed to the point that they are likely to live for fewer than six months. Hospice care offers comfort to both the patient and his or her family.

How do hospice and palliative care work?

Hospice care focuses on all elements of your life and well-being as a patient: physical, social, emotional, and spiritual. There are no age restrictions; anyone in their later years is eligible for assistance. While the amenities provided by different hospice services around the world vary, most include a team that may include your physician, a hospice doctor, a case manager, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, a pharmacologist, a counselor, a dietician, a therapist, social workers, and various trained volunteers.

The hospice team creates a care plan suited to your specific pain management and symptom alleviation needs and provides all essential palliative medications and therapies, medical supplies, and equipment. Hospice care is typically delivered in the comfort of your own home, with a family member acting as the primary caregiver and being overseen by professionals trained in quality caregiving programs.

Hospice providers will come to your home regularly to assess your requirements and provide additional care and services like speech and physical therapy, therapeutic massage, or nutritional assistance. Bathing and other personal care services may also be provided by certified home health aides.

A hospice team provides emotional and spiritual care based on your needs, wishes, and beliefs, as well as having staff on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Your loved ones will also receive emotional and spiritual support, as well as grief therapy.

Common health conditions addressed in palliative care

• Kidney failure
• Cancer
• Liver failure
• Congestive heart failure (CHF)
• HIV/AIDS
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Multiple sclerosis
• Spinal cord injuries
• Alzheimer’s and other dementias
• Brain diseases such as Parkinson’s, ALS, or stroke

Common health conditions addressed in hospice care

Hospice care is provided to those who have terminal illnesses and whose doctors believe they have six months or less to live if the illness runs its natural course. A patient must discuss hospice care alternatives with their doctor.

Benefits of Hospice and palliative care

In the same way that obstetricians and midwives provide help and expertise at the beginning of life, hospice care specialists provide specialized knowledge and support at the end of life. When you’re terminally sick, hospice can help you and your family cope by helping you make the most of the time you have left and attain some sort of acceptance. In fact, according to a study published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, terminally ill patients who got hospice care lived 29 days longer than those who did not choose hospice toward the end of life.

• As a terminally sick patient, frequently in a compromised physical and mental state, choosing hospice care over further curative treatment can assist in avoiding the consequences of over-treatment.
• Receiving in-home care from a hospice team generally means receiving more monitoring than you would in a hospital.
• Along with focusing on your comfort and physical health, hospice care also focuses on your emotional needs and spiritual well-being, as well as the spiritual well-being and emotional needs of your loved ones.

Hospice vs palliative care chart

	Hospice	Palliative
Diagnosis	Terminal	Serious, but not necessarily terminal
Timeframe	Final 6 months of life	Anytime
Treatment	Pain management	Curative treatment as well as pain management
Where	Anywhere you are comfortable	Anywhere you are comfortable
Team	Doctors, nurses, dieticians, caregivers	Doctors, nurses, social workers, dieticians, caregivers

Palliative care vs hospice care Medicare

Palliative treatment is covered by both Medicare and Medicaid. However, a person may be required to pay a copay, and their plan may not cover all prescriptions completely. Medicare normally covers all hospice care expenditures, with the possible exception of some medicines.

Medicaid provides similar full coverage in most states; however, it is crucial to verify state Medicaid guidelines to determine out-of-pocket payments. Coverage varies from insurer to insurer for persons who have private insurance. If a person’s coverage is insufficient, they can see if they qualify for Medicare or Medicaid.

Palliative care focuses on improving the quality of life for individuals with serious illnesses throughout their treatment, while hospice care is specialized end-of-life care. Knowing the differences helps families make informed decisions tailored to their unique needs. Both palliative and hospice care ensure regular caregiver duties and assistance to prioritize comfort, dignity, as well as compassionate support during challenging times.

FAQs

1. Why palliative care is bad?

Palliative care is not necessarily harmful. It plays a critical role in improving the quality of life for people suffering from serious illnesses by offering symptom relief, pain management, emotional support, and general well-being. However, perceptions of palliative care may differ, and some individuals may misinterpret its aim or associate it with negative associations. To address any concerns and ensure that palliative care is tailored to the individual’s needs and preferences, it is critical to have open and knowledgeable discussions about it.

2. Why do doctors recommend palliative care?

Palliative care improves the quality of life of patients and their families who are enduring physical, psychological, social, or spiritual issues as a result of a life-threatening illness. It is offered in many healthcare systems by specially trained professionals such as doctors, nurses, social workers, and others who collaborate with patients and their families to address medical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.

3. What is the difference between palliative care and hospice?

While both care services aim to relieve pain and symptoms, the goals and the prognosis of each tend to differ. Hospice is non-curative comfort care; the patient no longer has curative choices or has opted not to seek treatment because the risks outweigh the benefits. Palliative care is defined as comfort care with or without a curative goal.

There are similarities and contrasts between hospice and palliative care. Because Medicare pays for more than 90% of hospice treatment, hospice patients have to meet the eligibility requirements set by Medicare. Palliative care patients don’t have to meet the same requirements.

4. What is hospice care at home?

Hospice care at home services are designed to allow patients with severe illnesses to be cared for and die at home if that is their option. treatment may be offered to prevent or facilitate discharge from inpatient treatment for crisis management or prolonged periods of care. Care may also be beneficial during times of rapid transition.

Care is designed to be of the best quality feasible to improve patients’ quality of life while also helping caregivers and families. To accomplish this, hospice at home frequently collaborates with a wide range of other health and social care specialists.

5. Is Palliative care the same as hospice?

Hospice is non-curative comfort care; the patient no longer has curative choices or has opted not to seek treatment because the risks outweigh the benefits. Palliative care is defined as comfort care with or without a curative goal. Hospice and palliative care are not the same. Hospice is a sort of palliative care that is provided to people in their final months of life. Most palliative care therapies can be delivered at any stage of the disease process, including diagnosis.

6. Is there any difference between comfort care vs hospice?

The terms “comfort care” and “palliative care” or “hospice care” are frequently used interchangeably. All three categories allude to care that enhances the quality of life by alleviating pain and giving practical, emotional, and spiritual support.