Hospice care is palliative care that focuses on serving and comforting patients and their families at the end of their lives or as the illness becomes terminal. Most hospice programs concentrate on comfort rather than cure. It is a medical specialty that provides for the whole individual through an interdisciplinary approach to the plan of care. It involves the person and their family at the center with the physician, nurse, social worker, pastoral care, home health aids and volunteers to create a team to meet the needs of the individual and the family. Physical, Occupational and Speech therapies might also be part of a hospice plan of care if the individual would benefit from these services. Most hospice patients can achieve a level of comfort that allows them and their families to concentrate on the emotional and practical issues of dying. Franciscan hospice care provides this type of care.
Each patient is an individual with specific, unique needs. Franciscan Hospice Care’s interdisciplinary team of caring professionals works with each patient and the family to develop a personal plan of care appropriate to the medical, social, emotional, physical and pastoral needs of the patient. The interdisciplinary team includes the medical director, hospice care director, nurses, social worker, pharmacist, pastoral care director and volunteer coordinator. The administrator of Franciscan Home Care and Hospice Care attends the weekly meetings. The team is concerned with each patient individually and continues to assess, evaluate and make changes in the plan of care as necessary. Every plan of care is guided by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.
