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I have to agree with McArnold. My mom was on Hospice for Alz/dementia for 2 to 3 years and it was mainly for Palliative care (keeping her comfortable, making sure she was eating and helping with her needs.) Eval every 60 days to make sure she wasn't getting better but in fact declining. In some cases she had stayed the same but luck would have it she would either fall, get some sort of infection or catch something that would require medication and or attention immediately, so therefore she would be re-qualified. The last 6 mos of her life she would see the aid on a daily basis due to needing more and more help. Social worker, hospice company (interview hospice companies or ask the social worker if she has a favorite, look at reviews) can walk you through all. Good Luck and God Bless
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In New Hampshire, people are unknowingly forced onto Hospice and Palliative care and then denied treatment and overdosed with morphine which is not comfort care. It's hastening death for many who aren't ready to die, but pushed into it. In this state, ILLEGAL Euthanasia is being practiced by Hospice/Palliative care. Steer clear of both, in NH any way!
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Hospice care is a far cry from where it had been when I first became a nurse over 40 years ago! Back in those days, it really was about keeping patients comfortable and supporting patients and their families through the dying process. 
Since then it  seems to have become a way of delivering cheap sub-standard care that is less about providing for the patient's needs and comfort and that is more a means of promoting and hastening rather than supporting the natural dying process. 

As soon as someone is diagnosed with dementia, with cancer or following a stroke, members of a hospital's "palliative care" team swoop in and push the DNR agenda and promote hospice benefits. What they often fail to inform families about is that choosing hospice means giving up all personal control over treatment choices, etc. and that there can be extreme differences in how patients, families, and hospice agencies interpret "comfort care." At some agencies, "comfort care" means treating urinary tract infections to prevent fevers and delirium; other agencies, however, don't treat infections of any kind. Some agencies provide nutritional support (Ensure, Boost, etc.) and some don't--some restrict nutritional support to patients "who can't eat anything else at all."

My advice to families?  Don't choose hospice unless death is but a few days away, and opt for in-patient brick-and-mortar hospice if you can. That way, there's a much better chance that your loved one will be fed and medicated for pain in a timely manner.  Have enough family members available who can sit vigil at the bedside to watch and speak for the patient.

If the patient is indeed 'terminal' -- choose palliative care, because with palliative care you have more options. When the palliative care team at the hospital comes knocking, ask the palliative care nurse to tell you who he or she is employed by. Some palliative care professionals work for the hospital and some for outside agencies and some work double-duty (which I see as a conflict of interest, but that's another lengthy discussion worthy of a thread in itself!).

If instead you believe that hospice would be a good choice for you, enter the situation well-prepared! Demand to be provided a list of hospice agencies from which to choose from; that is your right under Medicare.  Go visit a few agencies; interview the staff. Ask questions about their philosophy on end-of-life care, for example, do they treat infections? Read their contracts carefully! Obtain a contract that has specifics about what kinds of care is delivered! Do they promise nurse visits three times a week? Do they promise to provide 'light housekeeping'? Wound care supplies?  If so, tell them that you want to see that IN WRITING!  Don't accept a hospital discharge until YOU are satisfied that you have selected an agency that meets YOUR specifications -- not the hospital's or the palliative care team's.  You can appeal a discharge to Medicare; the hospital must provide you with a document that has details on how to file an appeal. Don't allow social work or other hospital staff to frighten you into thinking that an appeal will fail or that you "might" have to pay for the in-patient days spent in the hospital during the time of the appeal. 
A contract that specifies each of the services to be delivered is especially important if the patient resides in an assisted living facility or nursing home. It's so easy for hospice to shirk responsibility in those situations and for facility staff to expect hospice to deliver care that they might otherwise be responsible for. What happens too often in those situations is that the patient suffers repeated episodes of 'missed care' because it has not been made explicitly clear who is now responsible for what aspects of routine care. When hospice can't provide a service-specific contract, have hospice promises documented by the facility in the patient's personal nursing care plan.
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XenaJada Feb 2020
Excellent!
Also, not all hospice agencies are the same! My relative went under hospice care for a month. What a JOKE that was! All of this particular hospice program's nurses lived in a city that is 35 miles away and never wanted to come at night if she needed them (she PF and CHF and was having panic attacks).

They dropped off a pain kit (morphine, Haldol, Tylenol suppositories) and made it pretty clear the family was expected to handle any administrating of these meds. She lived alone, did not have a sitter, and I lived 20 miles from her. This relative thought she wanted to be on hospice because she thought it meant someone would be coming to help her shower and do light housekeeping. NOPE. I seized upon this awful experience to convince her to go to AL, which she had strongly resisted for 2 years despite desperately needing to do so. She agreed to move and is thriving there. I'm 100% convinced she'd be long dead if she had stayed home and under this particular hospice program.
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In Indiana, I tried to find out the difference & got no where. I was referred to Hospice. If your loved one is truly close to death then it's the way to go. If that's not the case, don't go that way because no ER will accept your loved one for treatment unless they've been released from Hospice & when I realized Hospice was just going to let Mom die when all she needed was a transfusion & I'd made a mistake about her being on Hospice. It took "forever" to get her released from Hospice. It took 45 minutes for the nurse to arrive, the she tried to persuade me to just let her give Mom pain medication in the form of morphine, (which Mom was allergic to - and this was after she'd read Mom's medical file & checked Mom's vitals). When I insisted I wanted her released the nurse said she had to go down to her car to get the appropriate form. Mom was in a small hospital & it should have only taken the nurse 10 minutes max to go get the form. Over a half an hour later, she returns. By that time, I'd gotten a phone call from the Hospice supervisor trying to persuade me not to go through with releasing Mom from their services. I was livid. I'd been told it was no big deal to have the person on Hospice released. NOT SO! At any rate, it took another hour for the paperwork to be completed so the ER doctor would treat Mom. It was a night-mare! Mom lived almost a 16 months more. When it was obvious Mom was dying, then I did call Hospice in. This time was totally different & was what Mom needed. She lived less than a week & her passing was very, very peaceful.
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