Hospice physicians are specially trained in the use of morphine and administer only the dose necessary to alleviate a patient’s pain or help them breathe.

Morphine prescribed to a hospice patient does not cause premature death.

In a physician-assisted death, a physician, at the request of the patient, provides the means for the patient to end life early.

In hospice, a patient’s terminal disease state is allowed to progress to its natural conclusion. A hospice death is not the same as a physician-assisted death.Euthanasia (youth-en-asia) is purposeful mercy killing to end suffering. The goal of hospice is to provide pain control, symptom management and spiritual and emotional support to help seriously ill people live in comfort and dignity until they die. Death is a natural part of the cycle of life, and hospice neither prolongs life nor hastens death.

Hospice is not the same as euthanasia.There are no studies that indicate that hospice can hasten death, but there have been studies showing that some patients live longer when receiving hospice services. The goal of hospice is neither to prolong life nor hasten death, but to make the quality of the patient’s life the best it can be in their final months, weeks and days. Hospice does not make death come sooner.Hospice is not about giving up it’s about living in comfort and dignity for the time one has left.Hospice focuses on symptom management, controlling pain and addressing spiritual, emotional and psychological comfort. Hospice is a mode of medical therapy that may be more appropriate than curative procedures for people with terminal illness. Hospice does not mean anyone has failed the patient.Hospice professionals believe that when family members-including children-experience the dying process in a caring environment, it helps to counteract the fear of their own mortality and the loss of their loved one. Families are not shielded from the hospice patient.On the contrary, hospice takes advantage of state-of-the-art medications and palliative treatments to relieve pain and symptoms to keep patients comfortable. Hospice does not forego medications or treatments.Hospice doctors have extensive training in end-of-life care and will work closely with a patient’s personal physician to ensure the patient is as comfortable as possible. A patient’s personal physician can choose to be part of the hospice care team. The patient’s personal doctor is not excluded.Under Medicare there are no co-pays for physician visits, nursing care, medications, hospice equipment or medical supplies related to the patient’s primary illness. Hospice is an all-inclusive benefit covered by Medicare, Medicaid, Medi-Cal and most private insurance companies. Hospice is usually less expensive than conventional care during the last six months of life. However, anyone who has a terminal illness, whether it’s heart disease, COPD, liver disease, kidney failure, stroke, ALS, Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, AIDS or any life-limiting condition, is eligible for hospice care. Certainly cancer patients make up a large number of hospice patients. Hospice is not just for cancer patients.They respect all cultures and points of view and are there to lend support and discuss the patient’s and the family’s feelings. Hospice provides chaplains and other spiritual counselors from all faiths and no faith. When medical treatments can no longer cure a disease, hospice professionals can do many things to control pain, reduce anxiety, offer spiritual and emotional support, and improve quality of life for terminally ill people and their families. A plan of care is created that family and loved ones carry out at home to the extent they are willing and able. Every patient has an interdisciplinary team that starts with the patient and family: patient, family caregiver, physician, nurse, social worker, chaplain, hospice aid, bereavement specialist, and volunteer. Loved ones and relatives are not kept from participating in caring for the hospice patient.Some hospitals have hospice beds however, the intention of hospice is to deliver hospice services to the patient wherever he/she calls home. This could be a private residence, assisted living community or nursing home. Those who choose hospice services near the end of life do not “go into” hospice, but receive services where they live.

The answers to these hospice myths are no, no and no. Is hospice really a place sick people go and never come back? Once someone goes into hospice, does that mean the family never gets to see him or her again? Isn’t hospice some sort of religious practice? Medicare Hospice Benefit & Physician Billing.Benefits of Hospice and Palliative Care.Hospice and Palliative Care Eligibility Guidelines.

Does morphine hasten death