Substandard Hospice Care Leaves Dying Patients in a Lurch and Family Members Frustrated
Hospice care is palliative. It is reserved for those patients whose end is near, and who wish to spend their final days in comfort – usually at home. While all patients deserve compassion, there is something special about hospice patients, who trust their caregivers to help them in their end stages – and to help their families grieve.
In America, however, we are failing our hospice patients. Time Magazine’s recent piece – “No One is Coming:’ Investigation Reveals Hospices Abandon Patients at Death’s Door” – tells the story of a woman's frustrating and frightening experience with a hospice agency in Alaska in the final, excruciating days of her husband's death from cancer.
What services is hospice supposed to provide?
Hospice is supposed to provide 24/7 support in the form of medical care for the dying person, and emotional and practical support for their loved ones. It is supposed to prioritize the needs of the dying and of their families. When hospice workers fail to uphold this duty, it is an act of negligence.
As her husband lay dying of cancer at home, Mrs. Martin tried to reach hospice workers to get the pain medication to help ease the agony he was experiencing as cancer wracked his body.. Mrs. Martin waited four long days for the pain pills to arrive. By the time they were delivered, Dr. Martin was unable to swallow, so she called hospice to request liquid pain meds, which took six more days and repeated phone calls to arrive. Mrs. Martin said, in the Time Magazine story, that her husband's final days were chaotic.
This is a chronic problem
Kaiser Health News investigated 20,000 government inspection records for hospice care and found that missed visits and neglect were common for patients who chose the option of dying at home. KHN examined more than 3,200 complaints that family members filed with state officials in the last five years, which uncovered problems at 759 hospices, with more than half of them being cited for missing visits or failing to provide other promised services for end-of-life care.
Hospice agencies receive nearly $16 billion each year in federal Medicare funding to care for dying patients in their homes. About 1.4 million Medicare patients used hospice services in the United states in 2015, which accounts for more than a third of Americans who died that year. Whether they show up and perform their service they are contracted to perform, hospices still collect the same daily rates.
What questions should you ask if you are considering hospice care?
Families who are considering the option of hospice care can consult the Hospice Foundation of America's website, and read the 16 questions families must ask before they choose a hospice agency.
Hospice, despite the altruistic mission to provide end-of-life care, is a business. Medicare reimburses hospice at a daily rate for the care they are supposed to be providing to patients. When hospice workers do not provide the care that patients and families need when a loved one is dying at home, it can create a traumatic situation for the family who is not equipped to manage a dying relative on their own, and it creates unnecessary suffering for the patient who may end up dying in pain.
No one deserves to die in pain. We need to do much better for the elderly and terminally ill. If your loved one was ignored or maltreated by hospice workers, Plaxen Adler Muncy, P.A. wants to help. We have advocated on behalf of the injured and the ill for more than 35 years. To schedule a free consultation with an experienced Maryland malpractice lawyer, please call 410-730-7737 or complete our contact form. We can meet you at your home or at the hospital, if you cannot come to one of our offices.
Bruce Plaxen was honored as the 2009 Maryland Trial Lawyer of the Year by the Maryland Association for Justice. For more information on his legal background, please visit his attorney bio.