Hospice
Hospice is a model of care focused on comfort, symptom relief, and emotional and spiritual support for people with a terminal illness and limited life expectancy, prioritizing quality of life over curative treatment, often delivered at home or in dedicated facilities.
What is hospice?
Hospice is a model of care for people with a terminal illness and a limited life expectancy that prioritizes comfort, symptom relief, and emotional and spiritual support over attempts to cure the underlying disease. The focus shifts from extending life through aggressive treatment to making the remaining time as comfortable and dignified as possible.
Hospice care can be delivered in a patient's home, in a dedicated hospice facility, or within another care setting, and it typically involves an interdisciplinary team. That team commonly supports not only the patient but also the family through the course of the illness.
Why does hospice matter?
Hospice addresses a distinct and important need: high-quality, compassionate care when curative treatment is no longer the goal. By concentrating on comfort and quality of life, it can spare patients burdensome interventions that no longer serve them and provide meaningful support to families.
As a care-setting category it sits at the end-of-life portion of the continuum and operates under its own coverage and eligibility framework. Understanding it correctly is part of understanding the full range of settings in which care is delivered.
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