What Is Comfort Care & How Does It Work?
The wider medical industry is complex and comprised of many services. But while the beginnings of good medical care begin with the prevention and treatment of illnesses or physical and mental conditions, no medical system is complete unless it provides for the full spectrum of human wellbeing, including when the question of recovery is diminished, and quality of life measures take center-stage.
For that reason, hospices providing comfort care are some of the most necessary and worthwhile services you or your family member may ever interact with.
But what is comfort care?
Comfort care, put simply, is defined as a specific patient care plan that involves the use of palliative care and hospice care. This involves the means to improve quality of life, control symptoms of an illness or condition, and provide pain relief. It is a means of providing a patient who may not have the potential of further recovery via medical care a means to raise the quality of the years they have left - doing so while preserving their utmost dignity.
Who is comfort care for?
There’s an impression that hospice programs and care services are geared towards those in their later years of life, but no matter how old a patient is, if they qualify for this kind of treatment (perhaps by experiencing a terminal illness), there are also children’s, young adult, and adult hospices available.
Palliative care may not need any form of timed prognosis in order for a patient to qualify and may work in tandem with life-prolonging treatment. According to the NHPCO, the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, a prognosis of six months or less will be required for admittance to these programs, but each patient will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
How is palliative and hospice care different?
Both share certain similarities and differences. The term ‘comfort care’ is often used interchangeably for both.
To start with, palliative care is designed for people no matter what stage at their illness they may be in, including illnesses that may not be life-threatening. It’s a means of supplying conditional care while also working in tandem with curative medicines and procedures.
Hospice care is care given when a patient is not expected to make a full recovery from a condition.
Both of these practices will begin with thorough communication exchanged with the comfort care provider. Here they will assess goals, treatments, schedules, and priorities that will be arranged for you or your relative. This is where questions can be properly fielded, and medical professionals gauge the right course of symptom management and pain control measures to apply. This can also include how many days a week proper care will be provided.
This may involve inpatient visits, outpatient care, or perhaps more curated and specific institutional access, like gaining a recommended place in a properly vetted nursing home.
One thing is for sure - outstanding hospice care and comfort care can truly enhance the well being of you or your family members. For that reason, they should be carefully considered when planning the future of care you may need.
