When your loved one is admitted as a patient with Lutheran Hospice, a personal team of caring medical professionals including our Medical Director, the patient’s attending physician, and you, the caregiver, will create a plan of care as dictated by Medicare Law.
Each plan will include information on medical visits, payment for medications related to the terminal illness, medical equipment, and soft goods used during our hospice care programming. Plans also include access to an on-call hospice nurse 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Depending on your loved one’s needs, he or she will fall under one of four levels of hospice care as defined by law.
As the most common level of hospice servicing, nearly all patients who are admitted to routine home care will have their end-of-life services offered at this level. Very few move to a higher level of care.
Most services will be performed and offered in the patient’s home by their personal interdisciplinary team which includes our Medical Director, nurses and certified nursing assistants, master-level social workers, chaplains, and our talented volunteers.
As a caregiver to your loved one, Lutheran Hospice understands that when it becomes your full-time commitment, you may need some relief.
Lutheran Hospice provides respite care for you as a caregiver by providing short-term, usually five consecutive days, of inpatient care. This may allow you to travel, rest, or take care of your own needs. Your loved one may be placed in respite once every benefit period.
As a Lutheran Hospice Respite Care patient, we will provide your loved one with room and board during your break while providing care at this location.
During continuous care, your loved one’s personal hospice team provides care during a crisis from 8 hours up to 24 hours a day from 3-5 consecutive days within a single benefit period. This is meant to determine the proper management of acute medical symptoms that may have risen.
While continuous care is typically provided in conjunction with skilled nursing, hospice may also be provided at home or wherever the patient calls home.
Continuous care is provided by a nurse for at least 50% of the allotted hours while the remaining 50% may be used by a certified nursing assistant or homemaker service such as BeWell Home Services.
As the highest level of care, those who qualify for inpatient care must need care that can only be offered in an intensive nursing or hospital setting. If a patient can be cared for at home, then he or she may not be placed in inpatient care.
To qualify for inpatient care, patients must also exhibit uncontrolled physical distress such as unmanageable pain, respiratory distress, severe wounds, or intractable nausea, or he or she must display psycho-social problems such as an unsafe home environment.
I always knew if I had a question or concern, it would be answered and taken care of. I was definitely impressed with the staff members of Lutheran Hospice and their care and compassion for my aunt.