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Mar 28, 2024 · Jimmy Carter's year in hospice was also unexpected, his grandson has said. Former President Jimmy Carter speaks to the congregation at Maranatha Baptist Church before teaching Sunday school in his ...
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- Adam Carlson
Sep 21, 2023 · Ms. Fuller said her uncle was aware of his own upcoming birthday. “He wants to reach 99, I know that,” she said. “The last month has been different for him,” she added, but “I am just ...
Feb 18, 2024 · Scott Cunningham/Getty Images. CNN —. As former President Jimmy Carter marked one year in hospice care on Sunday, his family celebrated his resolve and expressed gratitude for the support they ...
- Overview
- What is hospice care?
- What is included in hospice care?
- How do patients qualify for hospice care?
- How do hospice and palliative care differ?
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•Former President Jimmy Carter has entered hospice care.
•The former president is 98 years old and has had various health issues in recent years including cancer.
•Hospice care is a comprehensive approach to end-of life care that is aimed at maximizing comfort for a person who is terminally ill.
Former President Jimmy Carter entered hospice care at home, the Carter Center announced over the weekend.
The president, who is 98 years old, “decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention,” the center said in a statement.
“He has the full support of his family and his medical team,” the statement read. “The Carter family asks for privacy during this time and is grateful for the concern shown by his many admirers.”
Hospice care is a comprehensive approach to end-of life care that is aimed at maximizing comfort for a person who is terminally ill.
Patients with cancer, kidney failure, dementia and other conditions qualify for hospice.
“Hospice, as a Medicare benefit, is specifically for patients who have a serious illness and have a prognosis of six months or less,” Dr. Corey Tapper, an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, told Healthline.
Physicians make the determination of life expectancy based on the disease running its normal course.
This approach to end-of-life care focuses on reducing a person’s pain, as well as addressing their physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs, according to the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).
“The goal of hospice care is optimizing someone’s quality of life and reducing their suffering, for however long that patient has to live,” said Tapper.
Medicare began covering hospice care in 1983, with some private insurance and Medicaid now also offering hospice benefits.
According to the NAHC, more than 1.6 million Medicare members received hospice services in 2019.
Hospice services are sometimes provided in nursing facilities, assisted living facilities, hospice facilities and hospitals, said the NAHC.
But “for the vast majority of patients in the U.S. who elect hospice services, those services are actually provided in patients’ homes,” said Tapper.
A home hospice team includes a nurse case manager, who runs the day-to-day care for patients, with the rest of the team made up of physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, volunteers and others.
Other services offered during hospice include medications to manage pain or other symptoms, home medical equipment, physical and speech therapy, and bereavement services for the patient’s family.
Before a patient can receive hospice care, a hospice doctor and a patient’s regular doctor, if they have one, have to certify that they are terminally ill.
The patient also has to accept comfort care instead of treatments to cure their illness, and the patient has to sign a statement choosing hospice care.
While the Medicare benefit is written so patients with a life expectancy of six months or less are eligible, many people spend less than 30 days in hospice care, said Tapper.
This is unfortunate, he said, because research shows that “patients actually benefit more, and report better quality of life and better symptom management, the longer that they’re in hospice.”
Tapper encourages his patients to start thinking about hospice earlier in the progression of their disease, such as when they no longer have additional therapies available to them.
Dr. Michael Trexler, an assistant professor and program director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship at Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine, said the “right time” to enter hospice depends on a patient’s goals for comfort care.
Both hospice care and palliative care are about managing patients’ symptoms and relieving their suffering.
In fact, hospice care can be viewed as a type of palliative care.
Where these differ is in the timing of the supportive care and the patient’s goals.
“Palliative care can occur at the start of a serious diagnosis all the way through the death experience,” said Trexler, “and is not limited to just those who are imminently dying or wanting hospice care.”
Unlike hospice care, patients in palliative care may continue to receive treatments intended to cure their illness. In addition, a patient’s illness need not be terminal in order for them to receive palliative care.
If a patient’s medical team believes that the ongoing treatment is no longer helping, the patient may be transitioned to hospice care.
Hospice care is a comprehensive approach to end-of-life care that aims to maximize comfort for a terminally ill person. The former president, 98 years old and with various health issues, decided to spend his remaining time at home with his family and receive hospice care instead of additional medical intervention. Learn more about hospice care, its benefits, and how it differs from palliative care.
- Shawn Radcliffe
Oct 1, 2023 · Jimmy Carter turns 99, about 7 months after entering hospice care. Last week, former President Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, 96, made a rare public appearance, riding in a black SUV at the Plains ...
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Feb 18, 2023 · By Alana Satlin and Phil McCausland. Former President Jimmy Carter will begin to receive hospice care at home following a series of hospital stays, his foundation said in a statement on Saturday ...
Feb 18, 2023 · Feb. 18, 2023. WASHINGTON — Former President Jimmy Carter, who at 98 is the longest living president in American history, has decided to forgo further medical treatment and will enter hospice ...
