What is Hospice Care?
Hospice Care is highly specialized medical care provided by a skilled team that manages symptoms and provides emotional and spiritual support to patients of all ages (including Pediatric patients). We tailor every care plan to the individual and work together with you to define your goals.
Goals of Hospice Care
- Support patient and family goals and prioritize what’s most important to them.
- Manage symptoms including pain, shortness of breath, insomnia, nausea, restlessness, agitation, and others.
- Help with managing medications and addressing new symptoms.
- Provide emotional support for the patient, caregiver, and family.
- Support the caregiver with assistance in filling out paperwork, getting durable medical equipment like a hospital bed, and other types of logistical help.
- Provide Grief Support and Spiritual Care for the patient, caregiver, and family.
- Engage the patient and caregiver in Music Therapy, a clinically proven therapy provided by our Board Certified Music Therapists. Music Therapy helps with pain and symptom relief, emotional and spiritual comfort, and family connection.
Download the Hospice Education Guide (PDF)
Where is Hospice Care Provided?
It’s a common myth that Hospice is a place. However, most people prefer to stay at home to receive care, surrounded by their favorite things and favorite people. So Hospice Care is provided wherever you call home. Your home could be your own private home, a skilled nursing center, an assisted living community, a hospital, a relative’s home or wherever you lay your head.
If symptoms are unable to be managed at home, we offer inpatient care at Elizabeth House and at other Medicare approved facilities that may be closer to you. Typically, care is temporary and designed to get symptoms under control so that we can get you back home.
Four Seasons provides Hospice Care in all 15 of the counties we serve: Buncombe, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Graham, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Polk, Rutherford, Swain, and Transylvania.
Your Hospice Care Team
Your Hospice Care is provided by a team of Four Seasons hospice professionals including a Physician, RN Case Manager, CNA, Healthcare Social Worker, Chaplain, Music Therapist, and Volunteer. Four Seasons is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help you and your loved ones navigate your care needs. Read More About Your Hospice Care Team
Hospice Care Eligibility
Hospice Care may increase the quality of life and provide comfort to patients of any age with a life expectancy of 6 months or less and who are no longer seeking curative, life-prolonging treatment. Four Seasons Hospice Care provides care to individuals of all ages, including pediatric patients. Your provider can refer you, but you can also refer yourself or a loved one directly by calling 866.466.9734 or Request Care Online. A nurse will evaluate your eligibility for hospice care and will determine next steps with you.
Core Hospice Eligibility Indicators
- Terminal Prognosis: A physician certifies that the patient likely has six months or less to live if the illness follows its natural course.
- Shift in Care Goals: The patient or their family chooses to stop curative, life-saving treatments.
- Worsening Symptoms: Including pain, shortness of breath, or nausea that are no longer controlled despite medical treatment.
- Decline in physical or cognitive function
- Nutritional Decline: Unintentional weight loss of > 10% in the last 6 months (or 5% in one month). Other indicators are a reduction in appetite or not responding to nutritional support despite adequeate caloric intake.
- BMI < 22 and/or decreasing mid-arm circumference
- Non-Healing Wounds
- Functional Decline: Increased dependence on a caregiver for at least 3/6 of the Activities of Daily Living:
- Bathing
- Dressing
- Feeding
- Toileting/Continence
- Transferring
- Walking/Ambulation
- Recurrence of at least one of the following within the last 12 months:
- Life threatening complications
- Recurrent pneumonias or UTIs
- Sepsis
- Recurrent fevers after antibiotics
- Frequent ED visits or hospitalizations related to primary diagnosis or co-morbidities including:
- COPD, CHF/Heart disease, Diabetes Mellitus,
- Neurologic diseases, severe autoimmune diseases, dementia.
When Should I Call Hospice?
Levels of Hospice Care
Four Seasons offers Four Levels of Hospice Care:
- Routine Home Hospice Care: Hospice Care provided wherever you call home.
- General Inpatient: Short-term, high-level care at Elizabeth House for pain and symptom management that cannot be managed in another setting.
- Respite Care: One to five days of Hospice care provided at our Elizabeth House or other approved facility that offers caregivers a break. This is a benefit covered by Medicare.
- Continuous Care: High-level, uninterrupted care provided in the home by a dedicated care team to manage acute medical symptoms during a time of crisis.
How Do I Pay for Hospice Care?
Our Hospice Social Workers will help you identify the best way to pay for Hospice Care. It’s covered by Medicare/Medicaid and most commercial insurance also covers it. Your Hospice Social Worker can also answer questions, and assist with paperwork.
- Commercial Insurance
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Private Pay
- VA
- Four Seasons Foundation offers an Angel Fund that may help those who meet criteria for financial assistance.
Why Choose Four Seasons Hospice?
Four Seasons was recognized as a Five-Star Hospice by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and received Hospice Honors Elite Status based on high scores from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey, which is sent to families we have served.
When Hospice Care is recommended, please know you ALWAYS HAVE A CHOICE, even if our name isn’t mentioned. Ask for Four Seasons Hospice by name.
For More Information
To learn more about Four Seasons Hospice Care services, and should you like our assistance in speaking with your doctor about Hospice Care, please call us at 866.466.9734 (toll-free).
Request Hospice Care
To speak to someone right away, please call
Local: 828.692.6178
Toll Free: 866.466.9734
You may also Request Care through the form below.
Providers: Please note that all Palliative and Hospice care referrals should be faxed to 855.355.4067.
