hospice

hospice /hos·pice/ (hos´pis) a facility that provides palliative and supportive care for terminally ill patients and their families, either directly or on a consulting basis.

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hos·pice (hsps)

n.

A program or facility that provides palliative care and attends to the emotional, spiritual, social, and financial needs of terminally ill patients at a facility or at a patient's home.

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hospice

[hos′pis]

Etymology: L, hospes, host

a system of family-centered care designed to assist the terminally ill person to be comfortable and to maintain quality of life through the phases of dying. Hospice care is multidisciplinary and includes home visits, professional health care available on call, teaching and emotional support of the family, and physical care of the client. Some hospice programs provide care in a center, as well as in the home or in a nursing home. Hospice also offers bereavement counseling for the family. See also emotional care of the dying patient, stages of dying.

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hospice,

n system for care of a patient during the final phases of a terminal illness, often involving family, emotional support, and professional health care in the patient's home.

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hospice (hos´pis),

n a program under medical direction and nurse coordination that provides a variety of inpatient and home care for individuals who are terminally ill and their family members; provides calming and accommodating care that meets the special needs arising from the variety of stresses experienced during the final phases of illness, death, and grieving (e.g., emotional, physical, social, economic, and spiritual).

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hospice

Managed care An institution which provides comfort care and a combination of inpatient, outpatient, and home health services–pain relief, symptom management and support, for terminally ill Pts (and their families) with CA, AIDS and other dread diseases. See Comfort care.