Healthcare Professionals

Hospice care is often available much earlier than people realize. When curative treatment is no longer available, hospice can be a tremendous source of emotional and physical support for patients and their families. Quality of life becomes the focus with symptom control, pain management, and support for navigating social, emotional, and spiritual transitions.

Hospice neither hastens nor prolongs the natural disease process. In fact, participation in hospice has been shown to lengthen life expectancy in some patients. Pain and symptom management, hospitalization rates, and patient/family satisfaction improve when patients receive hospice interdisciplinary care.

Talking with your patients about end-of-life goals

Meaningful conversations between providers and their patients about appropriate care choices can lead to better outcomes. Evidence-based medicine is more than just using clinically proven procedures: it is equally important to decide what not to do.

When having a dialogue with patients about their care goals when they have a terminal illness, it is helpful to have criteria about hospice guidelines to augment your clinical judgment.

The resources below offer some helpful tips and descriptions about the benchmarks commonly used when determining eligibility for hospice. Informational visits are available for your patients and can take place at home or in a hospital setting.

If you have any questions on how Hospice of the Northwest can help you or your patients, please call us at (360) 814-5550  to speak with one of our Hospice Physicians or fill out the email form to the right.