The Definition Of Palliative Care vs. Hospice Care

People often confuse hospice vs. palliative care. In fact, hospice care includes palliative care within it. However, the two can be separated as different services.

Hospice vs. Palliative care – Defining Hospice

Hospice care focuses on a person’s last six months of life of less. When curative treatment is no longer an option, hospice professionals work to make the patient’s life as comfortable as possible. This means that hospice care includes palliative care, because the goal is to make the patient as comfortable as possible for the time that’s left.

At Integrity Hospice, our specialists perform pain and symptom management at the patient’s home, nursing home, or hospital for maximum comfort.

Palliative Care vs. Hospice – Defining Palliative

Unlike hospice, palliative care can be performed for non-terminal patients. It is in fact to help people live longer, happier lives.

As mentioned above, palliative care is included within hospice care to keep hospice patients comfortable. However, for non-terminal patients, palliative care is about managing the symptoms and side-effects of life-limiting and chronic illness. Therefore, you can receive palliative care at the same time you receive treatment meant to cure your illness.

Consider illnesses like heart disease, HIV/AIDS, Multiple Sclerosis, the side-effects of chemotherapy. Palliative care, also performed in a patient’s preferred location, looks to make these conditions as manageable as possible so they don’t interfere with the patient’s lives.

Someone can receive palliative care at any stage of an illness, whereas hospice care is only appropriate at an end-of-life stage.

If you have any additional questions on palliative care vs. hospice care definitions, please feel free to call  us anytime.