The goal of hospice care is to improve the quality of a patient's final days by offering comfort and dignity. While addressing the symptoms of a disease and controlling pain and discomfort, hospice deals with emotional, social, and spiritual impact of the disease on the patient and his or her family and friends. Hospice care is rendered wherever the need arises––usually in the patient's residence. Most hospice programs are Medicare‐certified, employing experienced medical and nursing personnel with state‐of‐the art knowledge in palliative care and advanced technologies to relieve the patient from pain and distressing symptoms.
Hospice programs experienced a substantial rate of growth in the past decades, as their number increased from less than 2,500 in 1974 to over 3,600 in 2004, nationwide. Two-thirds of such programs are managed by nonprofit organizations, and the remaining third are for‐profit and government‐run programs. Similarly, the number of patients served by hospice programs...
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Suggested Readings
Naierman N (1999) Debunking the myths of hospice. http://www.americanhospice.org/articles/debunking.htm
Naierman N What to expect and demand from a good hospice. http://www.americanhospice.org/articles/ConsumerQuestions.pdf
National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). NHPCO's 2004 Facts and Figures. http://www.nhpco.org/files/public/Facts_Figures_for2004data.pdf
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Koroukian, S.M., Fambro, T. (2008). Hospice. In: Loue, S.J., Sajatovic, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_231
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-33754-8_231
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