What if it gets harder?

Ask whether all four levels of hospice care are provided and staffed, and whether there is an inpatient center when home isn’t enough.

Most hospice care is routine care at home, and for many families that is all they will ever need. But illness doesn’t always cooperate, and the real test of a hospice is what happens when it doesn’t.

Medicare recognizes four levels of hospice care. Routine home care is the everyday visits. Continuous home care puts a nurse in the home for extended hours during a crisis. General inpatient care moves the patient to a facility when symptoms can’t be controlled at home. Respite care gives a worn-out family a few days to rest while the patient is cared for elsewhere. Every Medicare-certified hospice is required to make all four available. Not every hospice is set up to deliver them well, and some do not operate an inpatient facility at all.

So ask. Does this hospice provide all four levels with its own staff? Where would we go if home wasn’t enough? Has this provider ever reduced care or discharged a patient because the care became costly?

Ohio’s Hospice provides all four levels of care and operates inpatient care centers across its service area, including Kobacker House in Columbus, the Gault Inpatient Pavilion in Wooster, Lorelei’s Place in Middletown, and The Truman House in New Philadelphia. When home isn’t enough, there is somewhere to go, and the same organization is caring for you when you get there.
That is what makes comfort dependable. Hospice is for living, and living includes the hard days.