Hospice means quality of life
Courtesy The Denver Hospice, East Denver LIVING WELL Magazine
Florence Gruchey gazes out the window of the log cabin her family homesteaded in the Colorado mountains. Birds scurry to the birdfeeder as the sun pours into the room. Florence is a hospice patient living life to its fullest.
“I’m 96 years young,” says the woman who served in the Army’s special services during World War II. “I sit up here and thoroughly enjoy every single moment of every single day. And I have thoroughly enjoyed every one on my hospice team. They are the most thoughtful and kind people I have ever known.”
Florence is one of 550 hospice patients and 220 palliative care patients in the care of The Denver Hospice each day. Since its founding in 1978, The Denver Hospice has provided comfort and compassion to more than 50,000 patients and their family members at a critical time – the last days of life.
“Hospice provides comfort and quality of life when the hope for a cure is no longer possible,” says Bev Sloan, CEO of Colorado’s largest hospice. “When patients turn to hospice, their symptoms are managed; they feel better and have quality of life. The hospice team comes in and helps families so the patient no longer feels like a burden to his or her family.”
In fact, studies indicate that hospice patients live a month longer than those not in hospice care. Hospice provides in-home care from an interdisciplinary team focused on the emotional needs, spiritual well-being, and physical health of the patient. Support and training for family caregivers is provided as well.
“Colorado is one of the most progressive states in embracing hospice care,” says Sloan. “We are second only to Arizona in the percentage of people who turn to hospice care before they die.”
Hospice – a philosophy of care that focuses on patient comfort rather than curing the patient’s disease – is generally appropriate for someone with a terminal illness and life expectancy of six months or less.
Hospice patients and families can, however, receive care for longer than six months, depending on the course of the illness. Hospice care is most beneficial when there is sufficient time to manage symptoms and establish a trusting relationship.
“Families tell us all the time ‘We wish we had known about hospice earlier,’” says Sloan. “I’ve never heard from a family who said, ‘We wished we had come in later.’”
Each patient is cared for by a hospice team comprised of a doctor, registered nurse, social worker, chaplain and certified nursing assistant. Patients are often cared for by their regular physician in cooperation with a hospice medical director. Meanwhile, volunteers offer everything from respite care and help running errands to simply listening. Music, art, pet and massage therapy are among added benefits that complement patient care.
Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries pay little or nothing for hospice care. Most insurance plans, HMOs and managed care plans include hospice coverage. The Denver Hospice has programs to care for indigent and uninsured patients.
Hospice care is typically given in a patient’s home where most patients say they want to live out their final days surrounded by loved ones. But hospice care also is available in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities and in inpatient care centers such as The Denver Hospice Inpatient Care Center at Lowry, which opened in January.
“Our 24-suite center is a state-of-the-art homelike setting. Each suite has its own patio and there are family gathering places tucked throughout the building,” says Sloan. “It’s warm and inviting with elements of nature incorporated throughout.”
Centrally located in Denver, the care center has a family dining room and day rooms, a chapel, hydro-therapy spa, library, education center and peaceful gardens and walkways with fountains. Patient beds and lounge chairs can be wheeled onto private patios so patients and families can enjoy Colorado’s outdoors.
“The building was designed with high ceilings to lift the spirit,” says Sloan, explaining that the center cares for patients in need of acute symptom management and those who seek respite care.
While the focus of hospice palliative care starts at the time of diagnosis or acute phase of the terminal illness, it extends beyond the patient’s death to the family during bereavement.
“The Denver Hospice Grief Center is open to anyone in the community whether their loss is a hospice death or not,” says Sloan. “Thousands turn to our grief counselors each year and find comfort in individual counseling and grief support groups.”
For information on The Denver Hospice, visit www.thedenverhospice.org or call 303-321-2828.
