Hospice home care: how to get patients home and help them stay there.
Home care can be a viable alternative to institution-based care for many patients. Even families who cannot manage the final hours of life and the death event itself may be able to provide a significant portion of terminal care for a patient at home. The necessary components of a system that seeks to support these families should include an interdisciplinary team of care-givers, a complete patient and family assessment, adequate family education, scheduled visits, and 24-hour on-call availability. The essential requirement, however, is the willingness to relinquish varying amounts of control to family members and to include them as equal members on the home care team.
D003643:Death; D005190:Family / Q000193:education; D006699:Home Care Services; D006738:Hospices; D006801:Humans; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D010347:Patient Care Planning; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D013689:Telephone