Hospice home care: how to get patients home and help them stay there

Home care can be a viable alternative to institution-based care for many patients. Even families who cannot manage the final hours of life and the death event itself may be able to provide a significant portion of terminal care for a patient at home. The necessary components of a system that seeks to support these families should include an interdisciplinary team of care-givers, a complete patient and family assessment, adequate family education, scheduled visits, and 24-hour on-call availability. The essential requirement, however, is the willingness to relinquish varying amounts of control to family members and to include them as equal members on the home care team.