Regardless of the diagnosis, most patients evolve through a similar series of signs and symptoms as they near death. The delivery of nutrition and hydration becomes difficult, and in many cases, detrimental to the overall comfort of the patient. Traditional modes of medication delivery for symptom...
Even if the hospice patient who is rushed to the hospital ends up back home, all those transitions likely made things worse. Care gets disrupted, protocols get changed, mistakes get made—and costs rise—with each handoff. “It impacts the quality of care,” said Teno, the geriatrician, wh...
A patient rests in a hospital bed by iStock. Nobody wants to die, but we all do at some point. Hospice care will not prevent your death, but can help you during this time at the end of life. If you care for someone with a grave illness, or if you care for an older adult ...
Last month, I had a 91-year-old hospice(救济院) patient, old John. He was dying of heavy heart disease. His wife had died 2 years ago, so he was alone. He had given up caring for his pet dog “Pepper” for a long time. Pepper was a small, ratlooking, yappy dog. The do...
Case studies on the successful management of complex pain in terminally ill patients Patient and family education materials to facilitate understanding and explore options for pain management Non-pharmacological interventions, such as music and massage therapy, that help ease patients’ pain and offer com...
Hospice brings a multidisciplinary team of providers to wherever a patient lives, be it their own home or a nursing home, to maintain their physical and psychological comfort so that they can avoid the hospital as they approach the end of life. ...
If your patient with advanced heart failure is hospice-eligible and chooses hospice care, partner with a hospice provider that has a proven record of delivering the highest-quality clinical, spiritual, and emotional services. 1Zehnder AR, Pedrosa Carrasco AJ, Etkind SN. Fa...
The relationship between patients' quality of life near death, the number of aggressive procedures received in the last week of life, and the length of hospice stay was plotted. Caregiver bereavement outcomes estimated the effects of patient medical care and quality of life near death on the ...
A comparison of the quality of care provided to cancer patients in the UK in the last three months of life in in-patient hospices compared with hospitals, ... The importance of evaluating systematically the effectiveness of hospice care has been noted for at least 20 years. There is, however...
Associations between end-of-life discussions, patient mental health, medical care near death, and caregiver bereavement adjustment. JAMA. 2008;300:1665–73. Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar Smith TJ, Dow LA, Virago E, et al. Giving honest information to patients with advanced ...