If you’re thinking about hospice care for a loved one, you may wonder if hospice provides long-term or short-term care. In medical terms, hospice is generally considered short-term, but there is no precise definition for exactly how long short-term or long-term care is. The team at Suncrest Home Health and Hospice of Phoenix explains.
What Is Long-Term Care?
In the medical field, long-term care is often a synonym for nursing-home care. Elderly people with illnesses such as dementia, Parkinson’s disease, heart disease and other conditions that progress slowly may need full-time care for many years.
Some nursing homes specialize in care for Alzheimer’s patients and those with memory disorders. That’s because these patients often share similar characteristics and require the same type of care. For instance, memory care facilities often use door locks and alarms to prevent memory-impaired patients from wandering off and getting lost or hurt.
Patients with memory issues often feel like they need to “get back” to a time or place that is familiar to them. Additionally, many in these advanced stages of dementia have few physical limitations. This can make the situation particularly challenging, because without long-term care, they may attempt to cook, drive or do other things that are dangerous for memory-impaired patients.
What Is Short-Term Care?
Short-term care can be as little as a few days and as long as many months. In hospice care, patients are required to have a diagnosis of six months or less to live. Hospice care is end-of-life care. Families of patients who are expected to live longer than this must find alternative care solutions, such as using the services of visiting nurses, home health aides or daycare for the elderly.
When a patient enters hospice, they might live a single day, or even longer than six months. If a hospice patient lives out their six months in hospice care, they must be reevaluated by their doctor at that time. If the doctor believes it is unlikely they will live longer than six more months, they can continue to stay in hospice care. If, however, they have unexpectedly recovered sufficiently to make the doctors think they will live longer than six months, patients are sent home.
How Long-Term & Short-Term Care Are Perceived
Long-term care is often arranged based on the premise that the patient will live several or even many years, and need certain care and accommodations. These conditions are considered chronic, rather than terminal.
These patients may need structural changes at home to accommodate a wheelchair, handicapped parking tags for breathing or heart disorders, or other types of modifications.
Cancer is often considered a long-term illness, because depending on the type and stage of cancer a patient is diagnosed with, they may live many years. Hospice care is only considered at the very end stage of a disease or illness.
Suncrest Home Health and Hospice of Phoenix
To learn more about hospice care for your loved one, contact Suncrest Home Health and Hospice of Phoenix. It can be helpful to explore hospice care before you need it, so you are not rushed and making an emotional decision.
