Home Hospice Care

Because of physical and mental health conditions, an estimated 9.5 million persons in the United States have difficulty performing routine activities essential to living (Home-health and hospice care, 1993, pp. 820-824). An increasing range of home-care and hospice services are being made available to these people.

In contemporary society, a hospice provides a group of interlocking services for care of the dying (Dawson, 1991, pp. 83-87). The aim is to help them die peacefully without actively prolonging life or accelerating death. As most terminally ill persons prefer to live in their customary ways so long as is possible, the heart of the hospice is home-like care. Programs of this type for the terminally ill permit the individual to remain at home as long as is possible, before being admitted to a hospice, which in so far as is possible provides care in a home-like, as opposed to a hospital, environment. The most recent innovation in hospice care is the creation of a hospice environment within the patient's own home (Rhymes, 1991, pp. 803-816).

Hospices are of three major types. The free standing hospice is independent of any acute care hospital, while the institutional hospice is an independent facility within an acute care institution, and the hospice in the home is created with the homes of patients (Rhymes, 1991, pp. 803-816). Advocates of the institutional hospice note that in a hospital-based hospice curative treatment as well as physical

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old idea. In the contemporary environment, home health care is oriented toward those individuals requiring long-term care where the condition of the patient does not require constant access to either sophisticated hospital facilities or health care professionals (Risser, 1989, pp. 44-47). The hospice in the home provides an appropriate mix of care from family care givers and non family care givers. 2 Rhymes, 1991, pp. 803-816). Complete and up-to-date medical records are required if an effective care plan is to be developed and maintained. The maintenance of medical records in the home environment requires the use of a chart book. A daily record of patient food and medication intake, along with eliminations, must be maintained. Additionally, any information related to the patient that might prove useful at a later point in the treatment must be recorded. 2 ociety is demanding increased accountability from its health care professionals. Health care professionals who fail to report instances of abuse expose themselves to potential legal problems. This ethical dilemma appears destined to grow in significance. Nurses and nurses' aides functioning in home hospice environments are frequently exposed to death and dying situatio

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