Philosophy and Practices
The goal of all hospice agencies in the United States is to provide comfort to the patient. How comfort is defined is up to the patient or, if the patient is incapacitated, the patient's family. This can mean freedom from physical, emotional, spiritual and/or social pain. Hospices typically do not perform treatments that are meant to diagnose or cure an illness, and they do not seek to hasten death or, primarily or unduly, to extend life. While it is not required that patients sign "Do not resuscitate" orders to be on hospice, some hospices do require them as a condition of acceptance. Many hospice patients, though not all, have made decisions not to receive CPR should their heart or breathing stop. If a patient does decide to request CPR, that service may not be provided by the hospice; the family may need to contact Emergency Medical Services to provide CPR. The decision not to extend life as well as the pulling back of diagnostic or curative treatments is often the greatest barrier for patients in accepting hospice care; it can also create conflicts in medical professionals attempting to provide it.
Some confusion exists as to what treatments a patient may receive and still qualify for hospice care. Hospices may provide treatments that have been traditionally regarded as curative, including radiation therapy or antibiotics, if these are administered to improve quality of life. Determination of appropriate treatment is made on a case-by-case basis.
Another aspect of the hospice philosophy is the patient-centered care they provide. As the focus throughout the United States has shifted from provider-centered care, many healthcare agencies market themselves as patient-centered; for hospice, this patient-directed care is integral and interwoven throughout the care which is provided, and Medicare regulations reflect this philosophy.
Read more about this topic: Hospice Care In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words philosophy and, philosophy and/or practices:
“When a bachelor of philosophy from the Antilles refuses to apply for certification as a teacher on the grounds of his color I say that philosophy has never saved anyone. When someone else strives and strains to prove to me that black men are as intelligent as white men I say that intelligence has never saved anyone: and that is true, for, if philosophy and intelligence are invoked to proclaim the equality of men, they have also been employed to justify the extermination of men.”
—Frantz Fanon (1925–1961)
“The purpose of a work of fiction is to appeal to the lingering after-effects in the reader’s mind as differing from, say, the purpose of oratory or philosophy which respectively leave people in a fighting or thoughtful mood.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Money made through dishonest practices will not last long.”
—Chinese proverb.