What is Hospice?

The word "hospice" was originally used to describe a place of shelter for weary and sick travelers. During the 1960's, the modern hospice movement began by using a team approach to professional care giving, and was the first program to use modern pain management techniques to compassionately care for the dying. The first hospice in the United States was established in 1974.

Heritage Hospice provides its services to individuals who are diagnosed with a life-limiting illness with a prognosis of six months or less.

Hospice care is frequently mistaken as care for patients only with end-stage cancer. However, the types of illnesses in patients served by hospice have evolved and we have expertise in the care of patients with many life-limiting illnesses and conditions, such as: AIDS; Alzheimer’s and other dementias; ALS, also known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”; Cancer; Cardiomyopathy; Congestive Heart Failure; Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; Emphysema; Heart disease; Liver disease; Renal or respiratory/pulmonary disease (end stage); Stroke.

Sometimes in the last months of life, people may simply lose weight and become weaker for no apparent reason. This is called "Adult Failure to Thrive" and meets the medical criteria for hospice services.

Hospice care emphasizes the notion that Heritage Hospice treats the needs of the person, not the disease or diagnosis.