Hospice and palliative care are both care options for individuals with a long-term illness, and they both offer comfort and focus on quality of life care. However, there are some important differences between the two. Hospice Care Options currently offers hospice care to patients in Douglas, Eastman, Macon, and surrounding areas. In today’s article, we’ll go over the major differences with Dr. Abigail Miller, from the Douglas office of Hospice Care Options.
Understanding Palliative Care
Palliative care is an option for patients with a serious illness, who are still pursuing curative treatments.
“A patient on palliative care can still get chemo, radiation, and other treatments like that that are meant to cure them,” said Dr. Miller. “The palliative care team would work on things like side effects and emotional distress and things like that.”
Understanding Hospice Care
As Dr. Miller explained, hospice care is for those patients who are at the end of their life and are not looking to pursue treatments for their disease any longer.
“Hospice is really reserved for patients who are nearing the end of life,” said Dr. Miller. “Specifically patients who the doctors says it would be a reasonable expectation that they may only have six months or less to live. Because of this, hospice does not support curative treatments like chemo or radiation while you’re on hospice as our focus is really on quality of life rather than the length of life.”
“A lot of times hospice patients have a disease that either there is no cure, the patient is ineligible for the cure, or for which the patients have determined the treatment is worse than the disease,” said Dr. Miller. “And there are plenty of treatments out there that are pretty gruesome.
How to Know Which Option is Right for Your Loved One
Dr. Miller said that if you’re debating on whether hospice or palliative care is right for your loved one, they are probably a candidate for at least one. The key difference is their life expectancy, and Dr. Miller said this is based on a medical professional’s reasonable guess.
“No one has a crystal ball and can see into the future, but doctors think that individual has a disease limiting their life expectancy to six months or less,” said Dr. Miller.
While the decision between hospice and palliative care can be a difficult one for family members, there are two main things to consider. The first is whether your loved one is ready to give up any curative treatments they might be pursuing, like chemo, radiation, ect. The second thing to consider is whether or not they will qualify based on the six month or less life expectancy.
“I would say that it’s always good to go and speak with a trusted physician or provider that knows your family members’ situation and understands them,” said Dr. Miller. “Choosing between the two is just about what the disease is, what the treatment options are, and I’d say the best way to decide is to really have a trusted medical professional help you make that decision.”
About Dr. Miller
While Dr. Miller was technically born in Albany, she grew up in Douglas, going to school there from elementary up through graduation. After completing medical school and residency, Dr. Miller moved back home in 2020 in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I had been away for about 14 years at that point, and I was surprised by the affordability and the tranquility,” said Dr. Miller. “It was really nice to be close to family, so I decided to stay here and work with my dad in his office.”
She said the transition to working in hospice care came easily to her after working in critical care and ICU settings during residency. Since working with Hospice Care Options as the medical director, Dr. Miller said she enjoys the closure she is able to provide to patients and their families.
“With hospice, you have this opportunity to take an inevitable outcome, for all of us, and make it meaningful and dignified and give families closure,” said Dr. Miller. “If you’ve ever read a book or watched a TV show and you get to the end of it and think that was really unsatisfying. That was not a good ending. The ending is an important part of every story.
“I think that hospice meshes well with my current practice. We try to focus on the golden rule and treating others as we would want to be treated and with hospice, we get to focus on the patients and their families as people, not a number on a clipboard.”