Types of Hospice Care
Hospice is About Living
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Hospice
AMC Hospice of the Shenandoah has been licensed by the State of Virginia since 1997. It is accredited by the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Health Care Organizations and is Medicare/Medicaid certified. The roots of the organization go back further to the volunteer grassroots organization of Hospice Support of the Shenandoah founded in 1982. The merger with AMC took place in 1995 which married the strengths of the volunteer components of Hospice Support with the clinical skills of AMC.
The Hospice movement is not new. The original definition of Hospice was "a house of rest and entertainment for pilgrims, travelers, or strangers on a journey." Today hospices offer comfort and care to people as they near the end of life's journey.
AMC Hospice is a special type of care designed to help families cope with the daily realities of living with a life-threatening illness. Hospice combines practical, emotional, and spiritual support with medical care to enhance quality of life for the patient and family while controlling uncomfortable physical symptoms.
Hospice is tailored to meet the needs of persons whose life expectancy is measured in months rather than years. The following criteria are used to determine eligibility for Hospice services. 1) The patient has a life threatening illness. 2) The patient's care is focused on comfort and is receiving palliative care (symptom control) rather than curative treatment. 3) The patient's physician agrees that hospice is appropriate.
Hospice helps direct hope in a new direction. When curative treatment no longer accomplishes the desired outcome, the sense of hope may diminish. However, hope need not vanish, but will shift to new meanings for the present. Hospice brings hope to patients and families by controlling pain and symptoms and by addressing emotional and spiritual needs. The focus is to give each patient the best quality of life for each day of life.
If a life threatening illness is part of your life, you should discuss hospice with your physician. If you get better, or a new treatment becomes available, then you are always able to "opt out" of hospice.