Are You A Medical Professional Considering a Referral?

Hospicare is dedicated to providing the highest quality end-of-life care and support to your patients and their families. Our staff is responsive, reliable, and ready to collaborate with you to whatever degree you desire and coordinate patient care in a way that is consistent with your needs. Hospicare services are available to patients of all ages with any type of end-stage illness, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In determining prognosis, it should be the physician’s judgment that the patient’s life expectancy is 6 months or less. In practice it can be difficult to accurately predict life expectancy, however, we have some indicators for various diagnoses and conditions which can help guide the physician.

It is probably better to err on the side of early referral.  Hospice staff can be more helpful when they have sufficient time to build a trusting relationship with patients and their caregiver(s) before the situation becomes critical. Hospicare’s 24 hour availability averts unnecessary trips to the emergency room and allays patient and caregiver anxiety and fears.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or would like our help in assessing appropriateness for hospice services.

Patient Referral

Any one can make a referral to hospice.  To learn more about Hospicare’s services or refer a patient, e-mail us at info@hospicare.org or call 607.272.0212.

Talking to Patients about Death

While professional guidelines call for physicians to begin discussions about death when a patient has a year to live, a new study says that doesn't always happen. This story in the New York Times has a link to the study, which was published in the journal Cancer.

Quality of Life Matters: 
End-of-life care news & clinical findings for physicians

Read the latest Quality of Life Matters newsletter for updates on clinical findings and news relating to end-of-life care. The current issue includes:

  • 97% of Americans believe they should be educated about end-of-life care options
  • Checklist tool developed to identify patients in need of palliative care in hospitals
  • Nursing Home Residents with Advanced Dementia Have Better Pain and Dyspnea Management, Fewer Unmet Needs under Hospice Care
  • Advanced Cancer Patients’ Self-Reported Performance Status and Nutritional Outcomes May Accurately Predict Survival
  • Patients Referred from Acute Care to Home Hospice More Likely to Die Within One Week Than Patients Enrolled from Home
  • Monthly Discussion of Patient Deaths Improves Interns’ Perceived End-of-Life Care Skills, Provides Peer Support of Emotional Needs
  • Palliative Care Curriculum Now Available End-of-Life Care Websites Free of Charge on CD-ROM
  • More clinical resources

 

 

The process of dying and death remains highly individualized, making it essential that clinicians both ask questions and listen to their patients to ascertain their priorities."

-Jean S. Kutner, MD, writing in the Journal of the American Medical Association