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What is a Hospice Graduate?
August 19, 2022
The term “hospice graduate” can sound puzzling. How can one “graduate” from hospice if the goal of Los Angeles hospice care is to make end-of-life care as comfortable as possible? Indeed, this must mean that the person has fully healed, or it is a respectful phrase to describe a person who has peacefully passed away in hospice care. Neither of these is accurate. Hospice graduates are patients whose conditions have improved to the point where they no longer require hospice for the time being. There are a variety of reasons why a patient’s health may get better, from receiving the appropriate medication to maintaining a balanced diet that helps with their condition.
When a doctor determines that a patient will die within the next six months, the patient will be referred to a local Los Angeles hospice care agency, but what happens if half a year has passed and the patient is still living? In this case, the patient will typically undergo another evaluation to determine whether they still qualify for hospice care. Some patients may have their time in the facility extended for another six months. Others, however, may “graduate” from hospice, no longer qualifying for care due to an improvement in health or because the patient has chosen to stop receiving it or to pursue curative treatment. Graduating from hospice is also referred to as a “live discharge.”
It’s important to understand that not all patients who are discharged from Los Angeles hospice are hospice graduates. The term “hospice graduate” specifically refers to when a patient is released from hospice because their life expectancy has increased. Other factors contribute to people leaving hospice alive. These include switching to another hospice agency, patient preference, starting curative treatment and losing hospice eligibility, or moving to an inpatient facility such as a hospital.
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Our Los Angeles palliative care and hospice care team is highly qualified and prepared to assist you and your family when it is time to put an elderly relative in our hands. We are devoted to giving your loved one the quality end-of-life care every senior deserves. Determining which hospice care agency in Los Angeles is best for your relative can be a tall order. However, we firmly guarantee that choosing Faith and Hope will be a step in the right direction. Call us at (877) 797-1977, our toll-free number, or email us at [email protected].
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