Hospice

Care that offers comfort to patients and their families

For more than 30 years, Henry Ford Hospice has been dedicated to providing trusted hospice care that promotes dignity and affirms life. Our expert team provides you and your loved ones with the kind of professional, comprehensive and compassionate end-of-life care that you deserve and need.

Providing Comfort Care

Hospice provides pain management, symptom control, and comfort care when patients decide to stop life-sustaining treatments or there is no likelihood of recovery from an illness. We care for the patient and family as a unit and are sensitive to their unique situation. There is a nurse on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to provide support.

Who pays for hospice services?

Most insurance plans offer hospice benefits. The Medicare/Medicaid Hospice Benefit pays for:

• The care and services of hospice team members
• Medications and medical equipment related to the hospice diagnosis
• All levels of care:
  • Routine: The most common level of hospice care. A routine home care day is a day on which an individual who has elected to receive hospice care receives care in the place that they call home (ie: private residence, assisted living facility, nursing facility, etc.)
  • Acute inpatient/General Inpatient Care: General Inpatient Care is provided for pain control or other acute symptom management that cannot feasibly be provided in any other setting. General Inpatient Care is started when other efforts to manage symptoms have been ineffective. General Inpatient Care cannot be provided in a private residence, an assisted living facility, or a hospice residential facility. General Inpatient Care can be provided in a Medicare-certified hospital or nursing facility that has a registered nurse available 24 hours a day to provide direct patient care.
  • Respite: Inpatient Respite Care is available to provide temporary relief to the patient’s primary caregiver. Respite care can be provided in a long term care facility that has sufficient nursing personal present on all shifts to guarantee that patient’s needs are met. Respite care is provided for a maximum of 5 consecutive days.
  • Continuous: Continuous Home Care is care provided for up to 24 hours a day to manage pain and other acute medical symptoms. Continuous home care services must be predominately nursing care, supplemented with homemaker and hospice aide services and are intended to maintain the terminally ill patient at home during a pain or symptom crisis.
• No patient is refused care due to lack of financial means to pay for services. Donations help fund care for those who have no insurance or are unable to pay for the full cost of services themselves. Donations also pay for extra services or to help families in need.

Ask your physician if Hospice is right for you

Your physician can help you decide if Hospice is right for you. Henry Ford Hospice encourages your family physician to continue managing your care once you are admitted to hospice. The hospice team and hospice medical director will work with your doctor to create a plan of care driven by your needs and wishes and those of your family and loved ones. A patient can sign out of hospice anytime for any reason. In addition, we transition patients from hospice care if they exhibit a marked improvement in their condition.

The hospice team will explain the process and coordinate follow up care with your physician.