Hospice Care & Me

The Decision

Deciding whether Hospice is right for you and your family can be difficult and stressful. At SafeHaven Hospice, we believe knowledge of hospice and palliative care can help you with the decision process. Our goal at SafeHaven Hospice is comfort and quality of life for patients and families. On this website is a Q&A. Reading through this section will help answer many questions. We also encourage you to visit our Resource Center for articles that are also very helpful.

What are the four levels of Hospice Care?

Hospice is comfort care brought to every patient, whether in a private home, a nursing home, assisted living community, residential care facility for the elderly, or hospice house.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has defined four kinds, or “levels,” of hospice care. One patient may experience all four levels, perhaps in just a week or ten days of hospice services. Another patient may experience one level of care over several months of his or her hospice care. Each level of care meets specific needs, and every hospice patient is unique.

Routine Home Care

Most common level of care in hospice. Patient is generally stable and the patient’s symptoms, like pain or nausea and vomiting, are managed at home.
Usually provided in the home.

General Inpatient Care

General Inpatient Care (GIP) is a hospice level of care, defined as short-term care provided for a patient’s pain management or acute or chronic symptom control that cannot be managed in other settings.
Usually provided outside the home, in an inpatient setting at a medical facility like a hospital or skilled nursing facility.

Continuous Home Care

Continuous care is a service that gives patients intensive visits; instead of being visited just once a day or week, they’re visited multiple times a day while they are in a “crisis” state. The goal of continuous care is to bring them out of that crisis mode and back into a comfortable state. It really is for the benefit of patients who are having severe, unmanageable pain or discomfort.
Provided at home.

Respite Care

A level of temporary care provided in nursing home, hospice inpatient facility, or hospital so that a family member or friend who’s the patient’s caregiver can take some time off.
This level of care is tied to caregiver needs, not patient symptoms.

Hospice & Me

Deciding if Hospice is the right decision for you and your family can be a difficult choice. SafeHaven Hospice has prepared a HOSPICE questionnaire to help with your decision.

Hospice Questionnaire

The Hospice Foundation of America defines hospice this way

“Medical care for people with an anticipated life expectancy of 6 months or less, when cure isn’t an option, and the focus shifts to symptom management and quality of life.
An interdisciplinary team of professionals trained to address physical, psychosocial, and spiritual needs of the person; the team also supports family members and other intimate unpaid caregivers.
Specialty care that is person-centered, stressing coordination of care, clarification of goals of care, and communication.
Provided primarily where a person lives, whether that is a private residence, nursing home, or community living arrangement, allowing the patient to be with important objects, memories, and family.
Care that includes periodic visits to the patient and family caregivers by hospice team members. Hospice providers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to respond if patient or caregiver concerns arise.
The only medical care that includes bereavement care, which is available during the illness and for more than a year after the death for the family/intimate network.
A Medicare benefit: to which all Medicare enrollees have a right. Hospice care also is covered by most private health insurance at varying levels, and in almost every state, by Medicaid.”