Determining the right hospice care for your terminally ill loved one seems like a frightening task to take on an already grim time. Nobody even would like to think about that point of time. However, we all go through that.
In determining the right hospice care for your loved one, the main point you need to consider is the level of care it offers. This is important because this will give you a quick overview whether the hospice care services can meet your loved one’s needs.
Medicare defines four distinct levels of hospice care and there are as follows:
Level One: Routine Home Care
This is the most basic level of care under hospice care services. If your loved one is in a nursing home facility, this is commonly referred to as routine nursing home care. It caters to the following services:
- Nursing services
- Physician participation
- Medical social services
- Home health aide services
- Pastoral, spiritual, bereavement, dietary, and other counseling services
- Medications
- Medical equipment
- Medical supplies
- Lab and diagnostic studies related to terminal diagnosis
- Therapy services
Level Two: Continuous Home Care
A nurse or a home health aide stays at your loved one’s home from 8 to 24 hours a day. This level of home care is a short-term level of care and requires reevaluation for every 24 hours. Here are some medical conditions that are covered under continuous home care:
- Chronic pains
- Severe nausea and vomiting
- Anxiety or panic attacks
- A breakdown in the primary caregiver support system
Level Three: General Inpatient Care
If your loved one shows severe symptoms but only requires short-term treatment, they are recommended to be admitted to an inpatient facility. Medical conditions included are similar with those in a continuous home care. The difference is that the services provided to the latter are at home.
In this level of hospice care, nurses are the ones to administer medications and treatments to your loved one. Several types of facilities that offer inpatient hospice services are as follows:
A free-standing facility owned and operated by a hospice company.
A hospital may have a unit to provide inpatient hospice care.
Long term care facility may lease a unit in a nursing home to a hospice company.
Level Four: Respite Care
This is beneficial for you and your loved one’s other family members and friends. When your loved one does not qualify for a continuous care or inpatient care but their family is having a hard time meeting their needs, respite care may be an option.
If you want to avail of hospice care in McAllen, Texas for your loved one, give Palli-Med Hospice a thought. We accept payments, like Medicare, Medicaid, and other private insurances.
We also have a wide array of services that can meet your loved one’s needs. For the complete list of services we offer, visit us at http://www.palli-medhospice.com
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