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Hospice workers have an incentive to accelerate the death of a patient?
My father’s Hospice was paid by the insurance. They put him on morphine when he was not in pain, and insisted that we do not need to feed him anymore. The person said his body was ready to shut down and we needed to go to him.
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#2 written by midnightmoon62 1 year ago
The incentive they get is watching the person die peacefully. Do you really honestly have any idea how painful a death is from organ failure? Cardiac arrest? Pulmunary arrest? Any idea at all? I bet you dont. Had that nurse not fed all that morphine, you would be here talking about how horrible his death was and how awful it was to watch the seizures as his brain lost oxygen or how painful it was for him when his heart stopped. Or how awful it was when he chocked on his food because he couldnt swallow or how much pain he was in because his digestive system couldnt do anything with the food.
No, youre here complaining that they gave him a peaceful death maybe a day or two before it would have happened without the morphine. Go you. -
#3 written by kalica00 1 year ago
Insurance and medicare pay hospice providers for each day a patient is in hospice care. The sooner the patient passes, the less money they receive.
Morphine is used for pain in many hospice patients but it is also used for shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. Even if a patient is not in pain, morphine can be the best medication for these breathing problems. Often end-stage diseases that effect the lungs cause difficulty breathing that can be even more distressing then pain. Even if someone does not have a “lung disease” (like CHF, COPD, or lung cancer), when kidneys and lungs start to fail it is common for fluid to build up in lungs causing breathing difficulties. Was your loved one diagnosed with a disease effecting his lungs or was he at stage in the dieing process where is kidneys or lungs were failing?
Also it is common for someone who is passing to have difficuly swallowing. Sometimes the person shows no outward signs of swallowing problems, like coughing, but the fluid and food is slipping into their airway instead of the digestive tract. This is silent aspiration and can lead to aspiration pneumonia, fever, and breathing difficulties. Even if someone has a swallowing problem, it is common to allow them to eat if a person wants to. If the person does not desire food or fluid, it is sometimes best not to force it as this could cause aspiration. Sometimes moral or religious beliefs mean that a person wants to have fluid or food even if there is a chance of aspiration. If you expressed a desire for your loved one to have food and fluid, regardless of the risks, then most hospices would honor this request, even if it may hasten the patients death. When a loved one of mine passed, it was important for her husband to give her nutrition. The hospice allowed him to give her Ensure even though she silently aspirated. This probably made her pass faster, but it gave her husband comfort that she had had some nutrition.
You have the right to request his medical record from the hospice. Read the nurse’s assessments and notes. They will give you information on why the hospice made the decisions they did. It may help you have closure to read his detailed medical record.
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#4 written by Black-Widow 1 year ago
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#5 written by Bandit 1 year ago
Hospices are paid by the days a patient stays there. There is no incentive to get rid of patients. Morphine is started in small doses before the pain gets bad or starts getting bad just to comfort the patient. Sometimes the best thing to do is to let them go. I had to do it with my mom, my father-in-law and my best friend. It is very hard and does not get easier. The hospice is the “last stop”. Their only concern is to allow people to die with some dignity. I am sure the people at the Hospice did everything best for your Dad. I am sorry for you that he is gone.
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They do not speed up a patient’s death. They want to make sure the person is comfortable. When you deny pain meds, the pain will come back and it is harder to control. If you feed the person when they don’t want to eat, you also make the person uncomfortable. Hospice’s focus is symptom control and to make the person feel as comfortable as possible.