- Stationary hospice: for whom?
- Stationary hospice: referral
- Stationary hospice: how much does it cost?
- Inpatient hospice: what is the care like?
Stationary hospice - what is it about? It is a facility for terminally ill people who, due to their he alth condition or lack of adequate care, can no longer live in their home. Who can be referred to a hospice, how much does care in a hospice cost and what is care in a residential hospice?
Contents:
- Stationary hospice: for whom?
- Stationary hospice: referral
- Stationary hospice: how much does it cost?
- Inpatient hospice: what is the care like?
Inpatient hospice is a facility that provides palliative care, i.e. one whose purpose is to improve the life of a sick person so that they suffer as little as possible in the last weeks or months of life. In many inpatient hospices, relatives can stay with the patient all day, returning home only for the night. Many people have bad associations with hospice - with a place where you die away from home.
Meanwhile, the facts are completely different, as research proves that hospices do not shorten, but even extend life. One such study was conducted in 2010 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Stage 4 lung cancer patients were divided into two groups - one of them received the usual treatment, the other was taken into the care of a hospice, where they received palliative care. Not only did they suffer less than the patients in the first group, but on average they also lived by 25 percent. longer.
Stationary hospice: for whom?
The regulations say that those patients who do not have a chance of recovery and have already completed treatment, and who are terminally ill, may be taken under the care of an inpatient hospice. People suffering from cancer, spinal muscular atrophy, AIDS, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic pancreatitis, ischemic limb disease, circulatory failure, kidney failure or respiratory failure, Alzheimer's disease, post-stroke or difficult-to-treat bedsores. Most patients are cancer patients (according to with NFZ regulations, it must be 90%).
It is worth considering care in a home hospice when there are no more options for treating the disease, and the patient requires constant, sometimes 24-hour specialist care, administration of painkillers, does not get out of bed, is tormented by vomiting, infections, and bedsores .
Doctors working in the hospice will take care of the sick much better than even the most loving household members, because they will be able to properly select the doses of painkillers, and depending on the type of disease, they can also use other methods of alleviating ailments - for example, mild palliative chemotherapy or palliative radiotherapy, which will shrink tumors resulting from metastases, which will relieve, for example, shortness of breath.
Stationary hospice: referral
Hospice care can be requested by both the patient and his relatives, as well as he alth care workers or, in justified cases, other people (e.g. neighbors of a single person or social workers).
The referral to the hospice is issued by the general practitioner or a doctor from the care facility or hospital where the patient is currently staying. The decision whether or not a person will be admitted to the hospice is made by the hospice doctor. This is not the end: in order for the patient to be admitted to the hospice, other documents are also needed:
- Document confirming that causal treatment of the underlying disease has been completed.
- Declaration of consent to stay in the hospice care - signed by the patient or the person who takes care of him (in the case of the patient's inability to express his will).
Home hospice: what is it and how much does it cost?
Palliative treatment: what is it and how long does it last?
Response care: what is it and who can benefit from it?
Stationary hospice: how much does it cost?
A stay in a stationary hospice is free. Patients are provided with the care of doctors and nurses, pharmacological treatment, including pain treatment, as well as psychological care (which also includes the patient's family) and rehabilitation. Medical devices and necessary diagnostic tests ordered by a doctor employed in the hospice are also free.
According to the regulations, you can stay under the care of the hospice for no longer than six months, but this period can be extended. It is also worth knowing that hospices offer "relieving care" (the so-called "relieving stay") - that is, only for a while, usually for 10 days. During this time, a terminally ill patient can stay under the care of doctors and nurses, and his relatives who care for him on a daily basis can rest, at least at night. In practice, it usually happens that the relatives stay with the sick person during the day and return home at night.
Inpatient hospice: what is the care like?
Care in the hospice is round the clock, and the patient has access to a doctor and nurse viaseven days a week. It looks a bit like in a hospital, but a hospice from a hospital is distinguished by the fact that patients have more freedom: their family can watch over them, there can be flowers or photos of their loved ones on the tables by the beds - so that the patient in the hospice feels like in home.