Intro to Hospice Care with Dr. Lauer Flashcards
How does the acute care model fail at handing end of life care?
It focuses on fixing acute physical problems and crisis management
terrible at recognizing death isn’t always the enemy
Instead of being medication-focused, what is the hospice model?
it’s focused on integrative care and family/community education
In order to go to hospice care, a doctor has to say the patient is likely to die within what period of itme?
6 months
What must happen to the patient’s insurance to go into hospice?
they have to wave a part of medicare and sign up for hospice medicare benefit
how does hospice medicare benefit pay?
it covers all medical expenses related to terminal prognosis by paying the hospice program a per diem rate
True or false: patients must have a DNR/DNI in place in order to enter hospice
false
Hospice really focuses on the family as the unit of care as opposed to just the patient. How long can services extend beyond the death of the patient?
13 months
True or false: hospice does not use “big gun” treatments like chemotherapy or surgical intervention
false - they can use such treatments, but always with one question in mind - is it being done for the comfort of the patient
What are the four components of total pain?
physical pain (that’s easy)
anxiety
interpersonal interacitons
nonacceptance
How does hospice help a medical community?
- decrease unwanted admissions
- decrease acuity of admissions
- decrease ER visits
- decrease medications and equipment costs
What’s the most common hispice diagnosis?
cancer - just because those patients are easier to identify and get into hospice
What’s the most average ength of stay in hospice?
less than 7 days, which a problem - ideally it would be much longer
Where do the most referrals come from for hospice?
the hospital
