Description
Hospice is not a place; it’s a philosophy of care that enhances life for the patients and their families and friends. Even when medicine cannot provide a cure, it can offer comfort, care and assistance that can help maintain a better quality of life for the patient. This type of attention, called palliative care, involves the aggressive treatment of physical and emotional pain and symptoms. It focuses on enhancing a patient’s comfort and improving quality of life.
Hospice is based on the belief that through sensitive, appropriate care and the support of a caring community, terminally ill patients and their families can begin to prepare to face the inevitable challenges ahead.
When a patient's physician certifies that hospice care is appropriate, one of Kindred Hospice's nurses will admit the patient to our program within three hours -24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The nurse and a Kindred affiliated physician, who specializes in understanding and treating pain, will develop a plan of care to ease the patient's discomforting symptoms. Under Medicare, Medicaid and most insurance programs, Kindred will provide medical supplies and equipment associated with the terminal illness, such as bandages, catheters, oxygen, hospital bed, wheelchair and walkers, at no cost to the patient. Kindred will also provide medications associated with the terminal illness to help relieve symptoms at no cost to the patient.
