Trading Cancer Treatment for Hospice Care

Wednesday (last) morning I received a visit from the hospice care folks. It was an educational visit, and I felt like I learned a lot. There are a number of different providers doing hospice care in Seattle, with the big two being Providence and Evergreen. Because they had immediate availability in their calendar I got connected to Evergreen.

With Evergreen, the bulk of your care is provided at your home by your designated nurse. To start with the nurse will stop by once a week and then, as your health situation shifts, that may increase to a couple of days a week. Additionally, Evergreen has a sixteen room facility where they can move people who need 24/7 care and observation.

But the most interesting thing about hospice is that it's really about who pays. As a terminal patient, you basically have the choice of your oncologist (or whatever) managing your care of having the hospice folks do that. You can always change your mind about who you wish to choose, but you can only choose one at a time. But while your care is being managed through hospice, hospice calls the shorts.

Another interesting thing is that, at least in my case, my oncologist remains a crucial part of the team. As the hospice care nurses are trying to sort out next steps they are likely to reach out to my oncologist to get his opinion on the proper action.

So it really feels like they're bringing all the right people to the table, which I like.

And then there's all the other support personnel that get assigned to your case. I get a social worker
who will stop by every other week or so, and then they have representatives of the various flavors of the chaplaincy. And I'm sure I'm missing a few others.

But the people who stopped by were all very nice, as were the folks I've met subsequently. Now if they can just get their targets achieved, I'll be a very happy boy.