Monday, February 27, 2017

Hospice Care Plano

Options of Site of Hospice Care| AmeriPrime Hospice Dallas



Hospice service can be provided at patient’s home, Assisted living, Nursing home, Hospital and Inpatient hospice. Hospice care in designed to be non-institutional but hospice collaboration with the institution can help provide hospice care in the institution. 
at home


Ideal setting for hospice care is patients home as it gives more secure feelings to the patient. It is easy for family members to stay with the patient when hospice care is being provided at patient’s home. Home setting is sometimes not a good option for the family members as they do not want to associate death to the home as it leaves some memories of the death place.
at hospital





The Institutional setting like the hospital, Assisted living, Nursing Home and Inpatient hospice have some advantages like availability all kinds of resources. Family members do not need to worry about their presence and providing associated resources to live in the home.


In each situation, it is social worker’s responsibility to check the patient’s and family member’s preference about the choice and provide the best service.

Friday, January 20, 2017

Hospice Dallas| PALLIATIVE VS. HOSPICE CARE

PALLIATIVE VS. HOSPICE CARE


Palliative care is a specialty area in the medical field that focuses on aggressive symptom management. The experts who specialize in this area have one goal: to improve their patients’ quality of life. Palliative care is an intensive process that involves addressing the physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual needs that may be needed to facilitate a patient and their autonomy, as well as the access to their personal information, and choice. Because palliative care is so patient-oriented, the specialists in this area must also seriously consider the patient’s family’s needs. The family of the patient is a vital part of the patient’s experience and treatment, and the palliative care expert must optimize the quality of life by anticipating, preventing, and promptly treating any suffering that may occur.

Generally speaking, palliative care sounds very similar to hospice care. They both focus on the improved quality of life and they are both heavily focused on the patient and their families. In addition, the both strive to carry out the best patient care available through reliable, knowledgeable, and trustworthy specialists. Despite their obvious similarities, palliative and hospice care have their stark differences. On one hand, hospice care is a medical insurance benefit for patients, and it involves its own set of rules and regulations. Palliative care involves multiple disciplines and specialized medicines that specialists carry out for people with serious, life-threatening illnesses. The two methods and their programs vary greatly in terms of their goals, eligibility of patients, location as to where their care is carried out, specialists behind the care provided, and the payment of services.

As mentioned previously, the goal behind palliative care is to improve their patients’ quality of life by assessing and treating their patients based on their physical and other problems. In hospice care, the end goal is to make the patient feel as comfortable as possible, and to eliminate any sort of pain or discomfort that may occur as an effect of their treatment or diagnosis. Both the patient and their family are the focus in hospice care, while the main focus of palliative care is more so on the patient and improving the quality of their individual life. In terms of the eligibility of their patients, palliative care reaches out to people who are stricken with complicated or advanced medical diseases that require specialized medicine and care. Hospice care, on the other hand, are more selective because they only accept patients who have terminal diseases and illnesses, and are likely to succumb to their illnesses within the next six months.

The majority of palliative care is given at hospitals, nursing homes, or assisted living facilities, while hospice care is usually carried out at the patient’s home or whatever location they may feel the most comfortable in. Because palliative care is a medical subspecialty, doctors and nurses who study and practice palliative care are given the extra training that is needed in order for them to carry out their duties to the best of their abilities. Hospice care, on the other hand, is a team approach and is provided by a team of doctors and nurses who have had the training to provide special care to their patient, as well as the patient’s family. And lastly, there isn’t a special insurance benefit for patients of palliative care; the patient’s health insurance is, more often than not, enough to cover the palliative care services that are needed. Hospice care is federally funded by Medicare, which means that many state and private health insurance plans cover the cost of the treatments.




It’s important to note that, while significantly different, palliative care and hospice care do share their similarities. The method followed depends on the patient, their diagnosis, and their families, and it’s necessary to consult the patient’s physician or caretaker before making any changes.

 Palliative care is a specialty area in the medical field that focuses on aggressive symptom management. The experts who specialize in this area have one goal: to improve their patients’ quality of life. Palliative care is an intensive process that involves addressing the physical, emotional, intellectual, social, and spiritual needs that may be needed to facilitate a patient and their autonomy, as well as the access to their personal information, and choice. Because palliative care is so patient-oriented, the specialists in this area must also seriously consider the patient’s family’s needs. The family of the patient is a vital part of the patient’s experience and treatment, and the palliative care expert must optimize the quality of life by anticipating, preventing, and promptly treating any suffering that may occur.

Generally speaking, palliative care sounds very similar to hospice care. They both focus on the improved quality of life and they are both heavily focused on the patient and their families. In addition, the both strive to carry out the best patient care available through reliable, knowledgeable, and trustworthy specialists. Despite their obvious similarities, palliative and hospice care have their stark differences. On one hand, hospice care is a medical insurance benefit for patients, and it involves its own set of rules and regulations. Palliative care involves multiple disciplines and specialized medicines that specialists carry out for people with serious, life-threatening illnesses. The two methods and their programs vary greatly in terms of their goals, eligibility of patients, location as to where their care is carried out, specialists behind the care provided, and the payment of services.

As mentioned previously, the goal behind palliative care is to improve their patients’ quality of life by assessing and treating their patients based on their physical and other problems. In hospice care, the end goal is to make the patient feel as comfortable as possible, and to eliminate any sort of pain or discomfort that may occur as an effect of their treatment or diagnosis. Both the patient and their family are the focus in hospice care, while the main focus of palliative care is more so on the patient and improving the quality of their individual life. In terms of the eligibility of their patients, palliative care reaches out to people who are stricken with complicated or advanced medical diseases that require specialized medicine and care. Hospice care, on the other hand, are more selective because they only accept patients who have terminal diseases and illnesses, and are likely to succumb to their illnesses within the next six months.

The majority of palliative care is given at hospitals, nursing homes, or assisted living facilities, while hospice care is usually carried out at the patient’s home or whatever location they may feel the most comfortable in. Because palliative care is a medical sub-specialty, doctors and nurses who study and practice palliative care are given the extra training that is needed in order for them to carry out their duties to the best of their abilities. Hospice care, on the other hand, is a team approach and is provided by a team of doctors and nurses who have had the training to provide special care to their patient, as well as the patient’s family. And lastly, there isn’t a special insurance benefit for patients of palliative care; the patient’s health insurance is, more often than not, enough to cover the palliative care services that are needed. Hospice care is federally funded by Medicare, which means that many state and private health insurance plans cover the cost of the treatments.


It’s important to note that, while significantly different, palliative care and hospice care do share their similarities. The method followed depends on the patient, their diagnosis, and their families, and it’s necessary to consult the patient’s physician or caretaker before making any changes.

Friday, December 30, 2016

Hospice Dallas| IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOW-UP PROCEDURES IN HOSPICE CARE

Following up with patients and their families during or after a service is given is a useful method in creating a more productive system. The most important part of a follow-up procedure is checking any complaints that the patient and their family may  have concerning the hospice’s delivery of services. This will ensure that the patient’s personal care plan is being followed strictly and that there are no misunderstandings or miscommunication s. Maintaining a strong and trustworthy relationship with the patient and their family is an essential part of creating a reliable reputation as a facility.

Hospice deficiencies could arise as a result of a home visit or a clinical record review. If and when a hospice deficiency is identified, they must be recorded on the form CMS-2567. These deficiencies could include, but are not limited to:

• Failure to promote and protect the patient’s rights
• Failure to accurately conduct a patient-specific comprehensive assessment that identifies the patient/family’s need for hospice care and services, and the patient/family’s need for physical, psycho-social, emotional, and spiritual care
• Failure to develop and implement a plan of care that meets the needs identified in the initial or comprehensive assessment
• Failure of the IDG to meet the physical, medical, psycho-social, emotional, and spiritual needs of the hospice patient/family
• Failure to provide all covered services, as necessary, including the continuous home care level of care, respite care and short-term inpatient care
• Failure to provide nursing and physician services, drugs and treatments on a 24 hour basis
• Failure to retain professional management responsibility for all hospice services provided under contract to patients
• Failure to develop, implement, and maintain an effective, ongoing, hospice-wide data-driven QAPI program.


To avoid such deficiencies and complications, it’s important to take a step back and to pay careful attention to every patient, their family, and their individual needs. Following up with a patient and their family emphasizes the respect and strong communication that every hospice should have with their patients, and it also prevents the likelihood of mistakes and mishaps. 

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

How you determine if the Hospice care is good!


If someone in family or friends is utilizing hospice care, how we can determine if it is good. Following are attributes of services which help us decide if hospice care is good or not.

1.       Promotion and protection of residents right: This means if Hospice have a set procedure to educate all employees, patients and family members about the patient rights who needs hospice care.

2.       The hospice interdisciplinary group should gather information from patient and family members to evaluate and modify plan of care to the changing needs of the hospice patient.

3.       Educating patient, family members and friends of patient who are involved in patient care helps significantly the quality of hospice care.

4.       Qualified personals (Doctors, Nurses, Nurse aids, Social workers, Chaplin and management staff) are among the most important factors to deliver quality hospice care.

5.       Attitude of staff for quality hospice care should include compassion, love and empathy.

6.       Patient engagement in various activities (mental, spiritual, social, recreational and creative) also improve the quality of care.

7.       Hospice should provide care maintaining all acceptable standards of care at all professional levels.

8.       Hospice should have a comprehensive infection control program to protect patient, family members, employees and visitors.

9.       The data driven quality assurance program is critical for the quality hospice care. This program should be able to identify any deficiencies, errors and measure the level of quality of care. Analysis of quality assurance help modifying strategies and the process to deliver best care.

10.   Employees performance measurement, on job training, employees training for hospice policies and procedures and continuing education are practices which help hospice to gain excellence.

Ameriprime  Hospice is the hospice care provider which is maintaining all of the above standards to deliver the best hospice care in Dallas, Plano, Richardson, Carrollton, Denton, Fort worth and many other cities of the Dallas Fort worth.