Palliative Care v. Hospice Care
Courtney Carter
/ Categories: WELLNESS, 2024

Palliative Care v. Hospice Care

The Differences and Benefits

When facing a serious illness, understanding your care options can make a world of difference. While the terms palliative care and hospice are often used interchangeably, they’re distinctly different types of care, each focusing on a different step in an individual’s care and end-of-life journey.

Simply put, palliative care focuses on maintaining the highest quality of life while managing treatment and other needs while hospice care focuses on the period closest to death.

Here’s a deeper dive into how each supports individuals and families facing serious illness and end of life.

 

What is Palliative Care

Palliative care is specialized medical care for people living with a serious illness, such as cancer, dementia, COPD, and heart failure. Often called supportive care, palliative care focuses improving quality of life and helping with symptoms.

Because people receiving palliative care may receive medical care for their symptoms along with treatment intended to cure their illness, palliative care aims to help patients understand their choices for medical treatment.

In addition to addressing medical needs, palliative care focuses on the emotional, spiritual, and social needs of the patient and their family. This all-encompassing care is typically provided by a team of specially trained doctors, nurses and other specialists who work to connect patients and families with the resources they need and minimize the disruptions their illness or treatments may cause in daily life.  

Key aspects of palliative care include:

  • Pain and symptom management

  • Help with setting care priorities and preferences

  • Support for patients and loved ones throughout the illness journey

  • Assistance with advance care planning

Palliative care can be provided in a variety of settings, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, and at home.

The benefits of palliative care have been well-researched and documented. Beyond empowering individuals to control their care and quality of life, palliative care is associated with:

 

What is Hospice Care

Hospice care is specialized care for those in the last phase of a terminal illness when curative measures are no longer pursued; typically for those with a life expectancy of six months or less. 

While individuals in hospice do not receive curative treatments for their illness(es), they can get treatment that enhances quality of life. This may include medication for high blood pressure, anxiety, and pain and even special services like speech or physical therapy.

Key aspects of hospice care include:

  • Round-the-clock access to care

  • Pain and symptom relief

  • Emotional and spiritual support for patients and families

  • Bereavement services for loved ones

It’s important to note that if a patient’s condition improves or they decide they wish to resume curative care, they may leave and return to hospice care later.

Hospice care can be provided at home, in hospice centers, or other facilities.

The benefits of hospice care include:

  • Relief suffering

  • Help with medical and non-medical needs

  • Promotion of dignity

  • Support for family and caregivers

  • Closure for patients and families

 

By understanding palliative and hospice care, you and your loved ones can make informed decisions that are in line with your goals, values, and preferences.

For tips on talking to loved ones about serious illness and care—theirs or your own—click here. Whatever you decide to do, be sure to relay any wishes and decisions to the appropriate healthcare provider.

While these conversations may be difficult, it’s important to keep the end goal in mind: preserving personal comfort, dignity, and making the most of your time.

 

Allen Hutcheson, MD, is a family medicine physician and palliative care specialist at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center. 

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OB/GYN Care in a New Age

I am a strong believer in preventive care. Our patients are healthiest and OB/GYN physicians are most successful when we see each other at least annually and as soon as concerns arise. While this hasn't always been possible throughout the pandemic, I am happy to report that it is slowly getting easier to provide and receive care in the ways we had been used to, with a few adjustments for added safety.

I am especially concerned about patients who may have delayed care. While some concerns can safely wait a short while, putting off care in other situations may worsen the condition or the outcome. I encourage both new and returning patients to call the office to discuss resuming regular care and discussing any concerns that may have come up.

Here's what you can expect, including some of the innovative ways we are meeting patients' needs safely.

When you call the office, the receptionists will schedule an appointment for you. An easy telehealth option is great for reviewing results, developing care plans, providing contraceptive and fertility counseling, and consulting about weight management. For these purposes, the receptionist will likely recommend a televisit. It is very easy to connect and so convenient; while we love seeing you in person, we have to wonder why we haven’t been using telehealth appointments all along! Complete information about telehealth visits can be found here.

As you might expect, OB/GYN care often requires a physical examination, so many of our patient visits—including those for patients needing annual exams, testing, and therapeutic appointments—are still happening in person and in the office. The receptionists are working to stagger visits to decrease the number of people in the office at any one time.

Those coming to the office in person will notice a check-in station at the entrance to the Medical Office Building. The attendant will ask you a few questions about any symptoms you have and lend you a cloth face covering to use, if you don't have one. Wearing the mask over both your mouth and nose for your entire visit is required. For your safety and theirs, you will notice that all staff are wearing masks, too, along with either goggles or a shield. Hopefully you can still tell that we are all smiling, even under our masks!

If an outpatient elective surgical procedure is a part of your care plan, your OB/GYN and other staff will walk you through the process. A few changes, including COVID-19 testing in advance and intensified monitoring after the procedure, increases patient safety.

For those expecting to deliver a baby at SVMC, we are focused on maintaining all of the wonderful things our patients have come to expect from their experiences on the Women's and Children’s unit. Caring medical staff and nurses, individualized attention, and compassionate support are all in abundant supply.

Like when coming to the office, growing families will notice the check-in at the hospital's main entrance and staff wearing protective equipment. Our visitor’s policy indicates only one support person. We recognize that this is so challenging, and we are working to provide all of the support we can to bring your birth experience safely in line with what you had hoped, right down to the cheering support squad provided by a family via video chat during a delivery I attended earlier this week.

In the case that a family has had any exposure to COVID-19, the Women's and Children’s Unit has its own negative-pressure room. Extensive infection-prevention policies—consistent across all of the medical professionals involved with care for growing families, including OB/GYNs, pediatricians, midwives, and nurses—keep moms, babies, families, and staff safe. In fact, SVMC recently got a perfect score on a rigorous survey specifically designed to judge our infection-prevention measures.

Our ongoing commitment—pandemic or no pandemic, no matter your OB/GYN need—is to work through your concerns and deliver safe, individualized, and effective care for you. We hope that new and returning patients will call on us to help them maintain or regain their health. We are open, ready, and safe to provide the care you need.

Kimberley Sampson, MD, is the medical director of OB/GYN at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.

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