Can Hospice Patients Actually Recover?

If you're considering hospice care, you might wonder if hospice patients ever recover. Perhaps you're facing a serious prognosis and are unsure if hospice is the same as giving up. Or maybe you're hoping that Mom or Dad will recover their full health while in hospice.

Although recovery is not typically the goal or outcome of hospice care, it does occasionally happen. However, the answer to the question of whether hospice patients can recover is not simple. Hospice patients may experience an improvement in their condition while receiving care, which they may consider a form of recovery. However, a full recovery to their normal health status prior to their illness is rare. Keep reading to learn about the many benefits of hospice care and how it can help you and your loved ones live your best life during serious illness.

What are the benefits of hospice care?

Hospice care is compassionate, quality care provided by a team of experts for individuals with a serious or life-limiting illness. If your illness follows its natural course and your physician or specialist estimates that you have six months or less to live, they may refer you to hospice care in Los Angeles or Orange County.

Don't wait for your physician to suggest hospice care as a treatment option. Be an advocate for your healthcare and ask about hospice care as early as possible. Choosing hospice care offers benefits such as comfort, support, and dignity, which far outweigh postponing care. Additionally, choosing hospice sooner may help you live longer or experience an improvement in your health, which can be considered a form of hospice patient recovery.

If you or a loved one has a life-limiting illness or questions such as "Can hospice patients recover?", contact Signal Hill Hospice to learn how we can assist you.

Hospice patients often experience an improvement in their condition because a hospice care team, consisting of physicians, nurses, home health aides, social workers, and other experts, addresses their physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs. They help manage pain, assist with personal care, provide counseling, and even help with bed linens, light meals, and other tasks as necessary. Signal Hill Hospice and Palliative Care even provides bereavement counseling after a loved one's passing.

The goal of the hospice care team is to care for the whole person, not just treat their disease. Hospice care offers comfort care, not curative care. However, hospice care does not imply giving up - on the contrary, hospice care focuses on every day of your life and ensuring that you have dignity and comfort each day. Hospice care also assists you and your family in better understanding and planning for the end of life, allowing time to resolve family and spiritual concerns and spend quality time on enjoyable pursuits.

So, can hospice patients recover?

Typically, hospice patients receive care because they are no longer responding to curative treatment, and the choice has been made to focus on improving the quality of their remaining time instead of actively working to extend their life through curative treatment. Although it's possible to see an improvement in your overall health and symptoms due to the consistent and personal medical care hospice provides, this does not imply that a hospice patient can fully recover to their health status prior to their illness.

Based on the latest data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), out of 1.3 million hospice beneficiaries examined from 2014, 11% or 142,000 experienced a live discharge from hospice care. Live discharge could be due to various reasons, such as wanting to explore curative treatments, switching to another hospice program, or the reevaluation of your prognosis by your physician after receiving some amount of hospice care, which indicates a life expectancy beyond six months.

Recovery Beyond Six Months for Hospice Patients

Surviving beyond the standard six-month prognosis in hospice care may be considered a form of recovery, as stated in a study published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. The study found that 13.4% of patients continue to live for six months after hospice admission. However, the study also recognizes that each illness and patient are unique, and it's crucial to exercise caution when interpreting these results. These findings should not be used to exclude any patients or groups from receiving hospice care.

A study published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management suggests that hospice care can have a positive impact on longevity. Although longevity is not considered a form of recovery, it is an encouraging outcome. Choosing hospice care over over-treatment can often lead to longevity by reducing the strain on a patient's weakened system. For instance, cancer patients may opt out of multiple rounds of chemotherapy to receive comfort care at home. Furthermore, hospice care's Medicare Hospice Benefit can provide patients with medication they may not have qualified for otherwise. Finally, hospice care's support system, including a team that looks after emotional and physical wellbeing, can have positive outcomes.

The Actual Purpose of Hospice Care

Although recovery may be a hope for hospice patients and their families, it's essential to understand that it's not the primary goal of hospice care. The actual purpose of hospice care is to ensure the highest possible quality of life for the remainder of the patient's life cycle. Hospice care neither hastens nor delays the dying process but recognizes death as a natural part of life. The goal of hospice care is to assist patients and their loved ones in living every day of their remaining time to the fullest.