What is Hospice Care

Life follows a cycle. Everyday another person is born and another dies. Death is as natural as birth, but what happens when you or your loved one is ready for their end of life? They try to live before they die. Death is certain and some live a natural long live and there are those that are diagnosed with a terminal illness with no known cure even with the advancement of technology.   This is the very reason why Cicely Mary Strode Saunders, founder of the first modern hospice,  during the 1960’s established the discipline and the culture of palliative care. Since proper care end of life is essential to a smooth transition for both patients and families, HealthNow is Bay Area’s top choice for compassionate care.

The word “hospice” comes from the Latin word hospitium meaning guesthouse. Initially, it described a place of shelter for weary and sick travelers returning from religious pilgrimage. In modern times, hospice care is a special type of health care that focuses on treating the person rather than the known disease. It defies the notion that all patients should be cured. It sees and acknowledges the “total pain,” which included the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of distress. It employs effective pain management and insists that dying people need dignity, compassion, and respect, as well as rigorous scientific methodology in the testing of treatments. HealthNow Hospice provides compassionate care for people in the last phases of incurable disease or the last days of their life so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible by reducing pain and suffering.

HealthNow Hospice care brings a team of professionals that work together to manage symptoms so that a person’s last days may be spent with dignity and quality, surrounded by their loved ones. HealthNow Hospice is also family-centered – it includes the patient and the family in making decisions.  Everyone works together with the person who is considered terminally ill, the doctors, nurses, social workers, spiritual advisors’ caregivers, and the family to provide medical, emotional, and spiritual support needed.

The HealthNow Hospice Team ensures that the people involved also share all information services. The family can choose where they want to receive hospice care.   Since it is an approach to care, it can be offered in two types of setting: at home or in a facility. A member of the hospice team visits regularly and someone is always available by phone 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. There is always someone on call to help you with whatever may arise. This gives the family an assurance that they are not alone and they can get help at any time. Families of people who received care through a hospice program are more satisfied with end-of-life care than are those of people who did not have hospice services.

HealthNow Hospice care is considered as end-of-life care. People who choose to undergo hospice care understand that his or her illness is not responding to medical attempts to cure it or to slow the disease’s progress. Hospice differs from palliative care, which serves anyone who is seriously ill or in in their end of life transition.  It is important to remember that the goal of the care is to help people who are dying have peace, comfort and dignity.