Home Care > Hospice

Begun in 1979 as one of the hospice pioneers in this region, Mercy Hospice cares for patients with incurable illnesses. It emphasizes comfort measures, a patient’s wishes and quality of life rather than a curative treatment. Hospice is holistic, addressing patients’ physical, emotional and spiritual well being and offers supportive services for all family members. Mercy provides several hospice care options–

• Hospice Home Care – Mercy’s hospice team provides services in the patient home: a private residence, nursing home, assisted living facility or wherever the patient lives.
  
• Continuous Care – is an alternative to inpatient admission for a medical crisis. The Medicare and Medicaid Hospice Benefit provides private duty nursing care in the home, designed for short-term crisis intervention. The hours of nursing care depends on a patient’s needs.
  
  
• Hospice Respite Care – This short term inpatient care is designed to relieve the family or primary caregiver. Caregivers often schedule respite to travel, rest or take care of their own healthcare needs. Respite is temporary and is limited to five consecutive days.
• Hospice care in a Mercy inpatient setting– Hospice care is available at Mercy for crisis management, when intensive nursing and other support are required. Criteria for this level of hospice care include:

1. Uncontrolled distressing physical symptoms, uncontrolled pain, severe dyspnea, nausea, or severe wounds
   
2. Psychosocial problems – caregiver illness, unsafe home environment, imminent death where family can no longer cope at home
   

Hospice patients may be admitted into any Mercy Hospice program and may transfer as needed. The Mercy Hospice team supports, identifies and responds to the patient’s needs in order to improve the quality of life and assist the family in honoring the patient’s wishes and planning for the future.

Hospice trained nurses and other healthcare professionals aggressively manage pain and other physical symptoms while providing patients with privacy, respect and dignity. The Hospice team strives to meet the needs of the family as well as those of patients while educating about end-of- life issues and how to manage them.