How Does Hospice Care Enhance Patients’ Quality Of Life?

by | Jan 27, 2025

Improving Quality of Life

Hospice is designed to improve the patient’s quality of life, but also provide them with opportunities to live each day to the fullest.

With a variety of resources, we work with the patient and their family to create a healthy environment for everyone to shine. Hospice care is not just intended for a patient’s last few days but can be beneficial for months. Many patients in hospice can still have quality time with loved ones and continue small parts of their everyday lives. It’s our goal to enable our patients and families to make good memories.

While hospice is often seen as a form of care for someone who is dying,  we encourage others to think of it as the final stage of care. Patients who are expected to live anytime under 6 months are eligible for hospice care. With patient-centered care we sometimes see patients become revitalized and have more strength during the final chapter of their lives.

What Are the Benefits of Early Enrollment in Hospice Care?
Find the Right Hospice Care for You and Your Family

How Hospice Care Works and Benefits Patients

Hospice care focuses on the health of the patient, pain management, and their quality of life.  Through different resources, Star City Hospice provides support for physical, emotional, and spiritual stress. Some aspects of hospice care alleviate difficult responsibilities from the family allowing them space to support their loved one in other ways.

Hospice care is typically utilized by those who are living with a terminal illness. These illnesses include cancer, lung disease, heart disease, dementia, and others that would reduce a patient’s life expectancy to six months or less. Patients who are eligible for hospice care are typically no longer receiving inpatient care to cure their illness; treatment must have reached a stage where comfort is the focus. Hospice care is a style of health care that focuses on the quality of life for the patient by treating them in the comfort of their own home.

Receiving Quality End of Life Care

Hospice care is a very specific style of care and has a large impact on the quality of life of each patient. Hospice care isn’t just designed to gently usher a loved one to the end but acts as a way to support the patient and their loved ones during this chapter of life. Accepting hospice services isn’t admitting defeat for the patient or their caregivers, but is an opportunity to accept professional support. By incorporating hospice care the loved ones of a patient will have more time and energy to cherish every moment.

Recognizing symptoms, making decisions, creating compassionate connections, and having the skills and knowledge to improve a patient’s quality of life are all ways hospice care can offer support. As patients enter this stage of life their families will face new challenges. By incorporating resources like hospice care the family members will have more opportunity to spend quality time with the patient.

Find the Right Hospice Care for You and Your Family

Maximizing Patient Pain Management

A major component of hospice care is helping the patient be comfortable. Patients may struggle to express their pain to loved ones for fear of being a burden, or they may have an illness that makes communication difficult. With hospice care, a staff member will have a continuous dialogue with the patient to help improve their physical comfort. We look for unusual signs of breathing, blinking, body movement, cognitive engagement, emotional swings, confusion, and more all to determine the pain and comfort levels of the patient.

Medications play a major role in reducing pain and increasing a patient’s quality of life. During hospice care, we will regularly monitor the patient, their health, and pain levels to make adjustments to their care. With the help of a professional healthcare worker medications can be more quickly adjusted, and they can be monitored closely to make sure the meds are working to improve the patient’s life. We make observations about dosage, the length of time, and whether the medications should be discontinued. Through other forms of care, we can help reduce emotional pain, and even provide spiritual support. In some cases, physical therapies can help with swelling, soreness, blood pressure, and overall stress.

Dedicated Patient Services

Star City Hospice offers home care hospice services. With regularly scheduled visitations to patients’ homes, we can provide consistent care and monitor their ups and downs. During periods when patients aren’t well enough to be home, we provide general inpatient care. Our goal in these situations is to get the patient to a state where they can return home.

Continuous care provides a more active role when families and caregivers need more assistance. In periods of crisis, continuous care provides relief for the families. Additionally, Star City Hospice offers bereavement care to provide support for families after the death of a loved one.

Our hospice care services include home health aides, dietary consulting, social services, spiritual counseling, nursing care, and physicians. We create a schedule that works for the family and the patient all while making adjustments based on changing circumstances. For times when patients aren’t able to be cared for at home we provide general inpatient care. Respite care can be utilized in situations where the primary caregivers need to temporarily step away from directly supporting the patient. This could be to rest, attend an event, or any other situation that would require additional assistance for the patient.

Star City Hospice Care

Star City Hospice is dedicated to providing high-quality at home support for our patients. Our team of dedicated hospice staff works together to assist each family throughout the more difficult times. We focus on enhancing the quality of life of every patient and family through every home visit.

All of our hospice services are focused on the patient and their family. By individualizing each patient’s care we provide the highest quality and most accurate form of care every day. With a well-staffed team of healthcare professionals, we offer an excellent patient-to-staff member ratio. It is our goal to ensure we are consistently providing our services to the best of our abilities. We can customize schedules and provide additional care when patients need it the most.

Contacting Star City Hospice

If you are looking for hospice care for a loved one please reach out to Star City Hospice today. End-of-life care can be difficult to navigate. With hospice care, our team offers a compassionate approach to healthcare. We will support you and your loved one through the remaining time you have together. Contact us to learn more or sign up for hospice care today.