Hospice care around Charleston

What is hospice care?

Hospice is a team approach to care for people with a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness runs its usual course, focused on comfort, symptom control and support for the family rather than cure.

DPH's data lists 10 licensed hospice programs with offices in the three counties and 1 inpatient hospice house: Lowcountry Community Hospice House (Summerville, 30 beds).

Where can hospice care happen?

Wherever the patient lives: at home, in a CRCF, or in a nursing home, with short inpatient stays at a hospice house or contracted facility when symptoms cannot be managed at home.

Hospice allows many assisted living residents to stay in their apartment through the end of life rather than moving.

What does Medicare cover for hospice?

Medicare's hospice benefit covers the hospice team, medications and equipment related to the terminal illness, and short inpatient and respite stays, but not room and board where the patient lives.

A physician's certification starts enrollment, and a patient may leave hospice at any time to resume curative treatment.

What happens when hospice is called for a parent in assisted living?

The hospice sends a nurse to assess the patient, confirms eligibility with the physician, and then coordinates with the CRCF so that hospice nurses, aides, chaplains and social workers visit on a schedule while facility staff continue daily care.

Medications and equipment related to the terminal illness come through hospice. Ask the facility and hospice to agree in writing on who calls whom when symptoms change at night, and whether the resident can move to the Summerville hospice house for a short stay if symptoms cannot be controlled in the apartment.

How do I choose a hospice around Charleston?

Ask how quickly the hospice responds to a night call, how often nurses and aides visit, who covers weekends, where inpatient care happens, and what bereavement support it offers the family.

Check the hospice's DPH license and the counties it serves on our home health and hospice roster. Medicare's Care Compare also publishes hospice family-survey results.

When should a family ask about hospice?

When treatment is no longer working or its burdens outweigh its benefits, when hospital stays are becoming frequent, or when a parent says they want to focus on comfort; an informational visit commits no one.

Hospice helps most over weeks or months rather than days, and many families wish they had called sooner.

How is hospice spread across the Lowcountry?

DPH's licensing data puts hospice in Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties as shown below; agencies are licensed without a bed count.