Hospice Care
When an individual’s cancer progresses and limits his or her life span and a decision is made to forgo aggressive life-prolonging treatments, then consideration is frequently given to end of life care at some point. Hospice care is provided by teams consisting of both professionals and volunteers during the last six months of a patient’s life and is focused on comfort and quality of life. The disciplines represented include: medicine, nursing, social work, and pastoral care. The physician overseeing the provision of care can be the individual’s oncologist, or alternatively his or her primary care provider. The hospice medical director is a physician who coordinates care between the patient’s designated hospice doctor and the hospice team, and can be called upon as a consultant to assist in management. Hospice care is most commonly provided at home, but can also be implemented when an individual is in a long term care facility Both Medicare and MaineCare have hospice benefits, as do most private insurances.