What Is Hospice Care?


Suzi Johnson, RN, a registered nurse and vice president of Sharp HospiceCare, answers these and more questions. Listen to the full audio clip to learn more.

Suzi Johnson

What is hospice care?
Hospice care is defined as a philosophy of care and it's also an organized way of providing care. Many people think that hospice is a place you go when actually it is a team of highly skilled professionals.

What services does hospice provide?
A registered nurse, a physician, a social worker, a spiritual care counselor, a volunteer and sometimes homemaking services. These are the core services.

Where is hospice care provided?
It can be provided in a patient's home, a skilled nursing facility, a hospital setting or in one of our hospice homes. The goal is to bring comfort to each day and make sure that the patient has a minimal amount of suffering.

Does insurance cover hospice?
Typically, patients are covered through their health insurance.

When should I find out more about hospice?
A person who has a chronic health care condition where the prognosis is a year or less would be appropriate to consider hospice care. Typically, a person is referred to hospice through their physician. However, a patient or a family member could call their hospice in their community. If we could take a more proactive role in our own care and begin to think about the process that this disease will have on life, we will do a better job planning.

Listen to more Healthy Aging podcasts here>>