Palliative Care vs. Hospice care

Palliative Care vs. Hospice Care

Although the term "palliative care" is closely associated with hospice care, this type of care is not just for the dying. Palliative care is sometimes confused with hospice care since one of the main goals of hospice care is comfort and most hospice patients are dying. Here are the differences between palliative and hospice care:

Palliative Care

• focus is on pain and symptom management


• patient does not have to be terminal


• may still be seeking aggressive treatment

Hospice

• focus is on pain and symptoms management


• patient has a terminal diagnosis with life expectancy of less than six months


• not seeking curative treatment

In both hospice and palliative care, the focus is on quality of life of the patient. The goal for both types of care is to address any adjustment to illness or end-of-life issues.

Taken from: http://www.umm.edu/palliative/palliative_hospice.htm