What Does the Evolution of Hospice Care Over the Years Look Like?
When people think about hospice care today, they usually think about a team of people offering comfort and compassion to terminally ill patients and their families. That’s what hospice is known for today. But did you know this concept of modern hospice is less than 100 years old? For a long time, the medical world was focused mostly on curing disease and extending life. But in the mid-1900s, people started asking a different question: what happens when a cure isn’t possible anymore? What should care look like for terminally ill patients? This question led to the modern hospice movement. Over the last 70 years or so, hospice has evolved from a new idea into an organized form of healthcare for terminally ill patients and their families. Today, hospice organizations offer pain management medicine, emotional support, spiritual care, bereavement services, and more. In this blog, we’re going to explain how modern hospice evolved over the years. Our timeline begins in London in 1967.
A Modern Hospice Timeline from 1967 to Present
1967: Dame Cicely Saunders Founds St. Christopher’s Hospice
The modern hospice movement started in 1967, when Dame Cicely Saunders founded St. Christopher’s Hospice in London. Saunders believed that a dying person’s suffering wasn’t just physical. She introduced the concept of “total pain,” which recognized that end-of-life suffering can be emotional, mental, social, and spiritual too. Saunders argued that dying patients need whole-person care. This meant managing pain, offering comfort, listening to the dying patient’s fears, and helping their families through their grief. Dame Cicely Saunders’ model for end-of-life care became the foundation of the modern hospice movement.
1969: Dame Cicely Saunders Moves Hospice Care into Homes
Just two years later, Saunders helped move hospice teams into patients’ homes. For the first time, hospice care didn’t have to take place in a hospital. Saunders’ hospice teams visited patients at home to deliver comprehensive palliative care.
1974: Florence Wald Founds Connecticut Hospice
The next major step came in 1974, when Florence Wald founded Connecticut Hospice, the first modern hospice of its kind in the United States. Wald had learned from the work being done in England and helped bring Dame Cicely Saunders’ hospice practices to American families. Wald is now known as the mother of the American hospice movement.
1982: Congress Creates Medicare Hospice Benefit
In 1982, Medicare started covering hospice services through TEFRA, giving hospice a formal place inside the federal U.S. healthcare system. This was a big deal because it changed hospice from a community-driven movement into something that could grow on a national scale and reach more patients. President Ronald Reagan also declared November 7th-14th as National Hospice Week in 1982.
1980s: Hospice Care is Formalized
Once the Medicare hospice benefit was created, hospice care became more structured. Medicare provides standardized medical care, nursing, counseling, equipment, supplies, and bereavement care. Medicare also formalized and started regulating the interdisciplinary team approach in U.S. hospice care in the 1980s. Current federal rules require a team approach to address physical, medical, psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual needs.
1990s to Present: There Are More Hospice Organizations Than Ever
Today, hospice patients and their families have more providers to choose from than ever before. And you can receive care in a lot more settings, including your home, a nursing facility, hospice houses, and in hospital systems. There are now over 6,500 hospice providers in the United States. Most of these are for-profit hospices, but there are still some nonprofit and government-run providers, too. This wider range of options is great, but it also means families may need to look more closely at each provider’s services, communication, staffing, reviews, and overall approach when choosing a hospice care provider.
The History of Hospice Care From 1967 to Present
Looking back at this history makes it clear that modern hospice didn’t happen overnight. It grew because people pushed for a better way to care for dying patients. Dame Cicely Saunders helped define the philosophy and started the modern hospice movement in London. Florence Wald helped bring modern hospice to the United States. The Medicare benefit helped hospice grow across the country. And the last 30 years of expansion and specializations have made hospice a more established part of modern health care.
What Hospice Care Could Look Like in the Future
Closer, More Personalized Care
Hospice care will likely become even more responsive and personalized in the future. CMS has already started using the HOPE assessment system, which gathers a lot more patient-level information in a more detailed and ongoing way during hospice care. This system could help hospice teams respond faster when a patient’s pain, breathing, anxiety, appetite, or overall comfort levels change.
More Quality Oversight
Hospice providers will probably face even more oversight in the years ahead. As hospice has grown, there has been more attention on how care is documented and whether providers are meeting quality standards. This means more accountability and protection for families. Rules and reporting will never replace genuine compassion in hospice, but they can push providers to maintain a high standard of care.
More Information for Families
In the future, families may have even more tools to compare hospice providers. Medicare already shares some information through its public reporting systems, and hopefully that will continue to grow. This could make it easier for families to compare services and care performance.
Contact Star City Hospice for Hospice Services in the Dallas Texas Area
Are you looking for a hospice provider in the Dallas Texas area? Contact Star City Hospice today to learn more about our hospice services. Our team is happy to answer your questions and explain all of your care options.