Hospice care

Hospice nurses are the cornerstone of hospice care, coordinating the overall care plan, teaching you how to take care of things on your own, providing hands-on care, and giving advice over the phone when necessary. During the duration of your hospice care, you are likely to receive care from nurses who perform multiple functions.

Nurses at Acura Hospice Care are available 24 hours a day. We plan out and conduct home visits to assess the client’s condition. Upon developing a hospice care plan, our nurses will then administer pain management and symptom control:

A hospice nurse can help:

• Advocate for practical patient care according to your wishes
• Share your/your family’s questions and concerns with the physicians
• Explain the medical situation to loved ones
• Be a sounding board when you deliberate your decisions
• Reassure you that you have carefully thought through your decisions
• Provide emotional support
• Help you and your family access spiritual support
• Be there at the time of death
• Assistance with medication monitoring and administration
• Medical equipment assistance
• Diet monitoring
• Pain and symptom control
• Personalized home care

Our physicians are a vital part of the hospice team. Physicians provide guidance and medical oversight in the care of patients living with a life-limiting disease. Some primary care providers or specialty physicians may choose to follow their patients’ care while the patient is on our hospice service. Others defer primary/attending physician care to the hospice physician. If the hospice physician serves as the attending physician, a patient may continue to see their PCP or specialist for care not related to the hospice diagnosis.

If the primary care physician or specialist chooses to continue as the patient’s attending physician, they are jointly responsible with the Acura Hospice interdisciplinary team in establishing, reviewing and updating the patient’s plan of care.

In order for hospice care to be provided, Acura Hospice must obtain an order for hospice assessment and treatment as well as a certification that, based on the physician’s clinical expertise, the patient’s prognosis is for a life expectancy of six months or less if the terminal illness runs its normal course.

Chaplain

The spirit, like the mind, body, and emotions, is a natural dimension of every person. In the hospice and palliative care setting, the spirit and spirituality are not defined within the context of a specific religion and its doctrines, but instead as the awareness of one’s relationship with the world, humanity, and one’s overall sense of meaning and purpose.

While other skilled care professionals tend to a patient’s physical and psychosocial needs, the care of the spirit rests with a compassionate and highly-skilled member of the hospice team — the hospice chaplain.

At Acura Hospice Care, the chaplain is as an integral member of the hospice team as is a medical professional who plans, assesses, and cares for a patient’s spiritual needs throughout the end-of-life process.

Bereavement Services

Bereavement support at Acura Hospice Care consists of individualized attention from our social workers, chaplains, and/or volunteers. During the months following the passing of a loved one, our caring staff remains in contact with family members to learn more about how they are coping and how we may help in that process. Some of the services we offer are:

• A year of bereavement support for all family members
• Monthly letters and educational materials for adults and children
• Referral to support groups for those who havelost a loved one
• Individualized care and counseling
• Access to appropriate community resources via referrals

Regardless of what we have to offer, what you receive is based upon what you need and want.

Medical Social Workers form part of the Hospice Care team at Acura Hospice Care. They provide emotional support for the patient and the family members while also giving them access to community resources that can help in their hospice situation.

Medical Social Work

• Support for Emotional Adjustments to Lifestyle Changes
• Assistance with Inpatient and Outpatient Services
• Hospital discharge arrangements on behalf of Client
• Facilitating Advance Directives (Living Will or Power of Attorney)
• Guidance on Healthcare Policies
• Counseling for the Patient about Terminal Illness
• Community Resource Planning
• Supportive Case Work
• Helping the Family Adjust to Loss or Change
• Health Crisis Intervention
• Group Counseling

Terminally ill individuals have the incapability of helping themselves perform activities required for daily life. Our Hospice Aides Assistants will support clients at home by providing personal care. We provide assistance in their personal care essentials for their comfort. We also offer psychosocial and spiritual support through their intimate relationships, listening, and presence.

Our Hospice Aides Assistants will support clients at home by providing personal care.

Personal Care tasks usually cover the following:

• Dressing
• Helping the Client Get Dressed
• Medication Reminders
• Assistance with Mobility
• Help with Toilet Use
• Help with Getting In or Out of Bed
• Bathing Assistance
• Home Safety Supervision
• Meal Planning and Preparation

The hospice benefit specifically provides physical therapy services, occupational therapy services, and speech-language therapy services for those hospice patients that would benefit from such therapy. Rehab therapies play a limited role in hospice care. 

The physical therapist can evaluate your loved one’s ability to move around safely in the home or facility and evaluate all the equipment. 

An Occupational Therapist can evaluate the ability of your loved one to accomplish his activities of daily living where as the speech language therapist is especially trained in helping your loved one who might be experiencing difficulties in swallowing food, speaking or communicating in any way.