HOMESERVICESHOSPICE OF THE HILLS

HOSPICE OF THE HILLS

A Division of the Home Care Department of
North Arkansas Regional Medical Center

'A Special Kind of Caring'

Hospice is a special kind of care designed to provide sensitivity and support for people in the final phase of a terminal illness. Hospice seeks to enable patients to carry on an alert, pain-free life and to manage other symptoms so that their last days may be spent with dignity and quality at home.

Hospice services are available to persons who can no longer benefit from curative treatment and the patient and family want to receive care at home. Services are provided by a team of trained professionals-physicians, nurses, counselors, therapists, social workers, aides, and volunteers-who provide medical care and support services not only to the patient, but to the patient's family and caregivers.

The patient is usually referred to hospice by the primary physician. Referrals can also be made by family members, friends, clergy, or health professionals. Hospice of the Hills does require approval of the patient's attending physician prior to the hospice staff admitting the patient to hospice services.

• Hospice offers palliative, rather than curative, treatment. Under the direction of a physician, hospice uses sophisticated methods of pain and symptom control that enable the patient to live as fully and comfortably as possible.

• Hospice treats the person, not the disease. The interdisciplinary hospice team is made up of professionals who can address the medical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of the patients and their loved ones.
  
  

  

• Hospice emphasizes quality, rather then length, of life. Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death; it affirms life and regards dying as a normal process. The hospice movement stresses human values that go beyond the physical needs of the patient.

• Hospice considers the entire family, not just the patient, the unit of care. Patients and their families are included in the decision-making process, and bereavement counseling is provided after the death of their loved one.
  
  

  

• Hospice offers help and support to the patient and family on a 24-hour-a-day, seven days-a-week basis. For hospice patients and their loved ones, help is just a phone call away. Patients routinely receive periodic in-home services of a nurse, home health aide, social worker, volunteers, and other members of the hospice team.

Click here to request additional information about Hospice of the Hills.