Hospice medicine
Article Abstract:
One of the major components of hospice care provided to dying patients is the effective management of pain. The goal of hospice care is to allow patients to die in comfort and dignity. Hospice care emphasizes the quality of life rather than the prolonging of life. Of the patients who opt for hospice care, 84% have cancer. Patients with AIDS and those with end-stage kidney, heart, liver and lung diseases are also choosing hospice care more frequently than in the past. Recognizing the financial savings gained by patients choosing hospice care instead of hospitalization, Congress enacted the Medicare Hospice Benefit program in 1983. Hospice care is a covered health insurance benefit for 80% of US employees in medium- and large-sized companies. However, the per diem allowances provided by insurance companies may not be sufficient to care for patients with AIDS or other chronic diseases that sometimes require expensive therapy until death. The US hospice movement is modeled on the British system, which opened its first hospice in 1958. The first US hospice opened in 1974.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1993
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Evaluation of Prognostic Criteria for Determining Hospice Eligibility in Patients With Advanced Lung, Heart, or Liver Disease
Article Abstract:
Many criteria used to determine whether critically ill patients qualify for hospice care are not accurate. To qualify for hospice care, patients must have an estimated survival of less than 6 months. Researchers applied 5 general and 2 disease-specific sets of criteria for hospice eligibility to 2,607 seriously ill people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, congestive heart failure, or end-stage liver disease. Between 53% and 70% of the patients who qualified for hospice care under each set of criteria actually survived longer than 6 months.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 1999
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
Serving Patients Who May Die Soon and Their Families: The Role of Hospice and Other Services
Article Abstract:
The US health care system does not adequately serve people with chronic illnesses who may be close to death. Many do not qualify for traditional hospice services. Instead, their doctors must put together a patchwork of services. A system that could serve these patients better is described.
Publication Name: JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association
Subject: Health
ISSN: 0098-7484
Year: 2001
User Contributions:
Comment about this article or add new information about this topic:
- Abstracts: High incidence of hepatitis B infection and evolution of chronic hepatitis B infection in patients with advanced HIV infection
- Abstracts: Prognostic value of a treadmill exercise score in outpatients with suspected coronary artery disease. Prognostic importance of social and economic resources among medically treated patients with angiographically documented coronary artery disease
- Abstracts: Prophylactic amnioinfusion as a treatment for oligohydramnios in laboring patients: a prospective, randomized trial. part 2
- Abstracts: Treatments for wasting in patients with the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Metformin in the Treatment of HIV Lipodystrophy Syndrome: A Randomized Controlled Trial
- Abstracts: Discontinuation of secondary prophylaxis against Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia in patients with HIV infection who have a response to antiretroviral therapy