Act Of Love

How Hospice Helps Your Loved One and Why It’s an Act of Love

Everything we do at Hospice Specialists of Louisiana is motivated by love and caring. We choose the heart as our symbol because it represents the love and care we show all our patients and their families. But we also know some people believe placing a loved one on hospice is a sign of giving up hope. In our view, making sure your loved one gets hospice early enough to obtain all its benefits is an act of caring and love for your loved one. Hospice allows for medications to ease the pain of your loved one, and it provides daily help to assist the individual and relieve the family of that burden.
But don’t take just our word that early hospice referral helps your loved one’s quality of life, numerous studies also suggest that early referral to hospice care can improve the quality of life for terminally ill patients and their families. Here are a few examples:

A study published in "Journal of the American Geriatrics Society" (2010) found that patients who were referred to hospice care earlier had better pain control, fewer hospitalizations, and were more likely to die at home, which is often their preference.

A study in the "Journal of Pain and Symptom Management" (2005) found that longer hospice stays were associated with better symptom control and patient satisfaction.

A research article in "Journal of Clinical Oncology" (2007) found that earlier hospice referral was associated with less depression in family members following the patient's death.

A study published in "The New England Journal of Medicine" (2010) found that among patients with non-small-cell lung cancer, those receiving early palliative care had less aggressive care at the end of life but longer survival.

The "SUPPORT" study (Study to Understand Prognoses and Preferences for Outcomes and Risks of Treatment, 1995) indicated that earlier conversations about end-of-life care and patient wishes led to improved patient outcomes, including less aggressive treatment strategies and better quality of life.

An analysis in "Health Affairs" (2014) indicated that patients enrolled in hospice had significantly lower rates of hospitalization, ICU admission, and invasive procedures at the end of life, along with significantly lower total costs during the last year of life.