An accurate way to describe the meaning of hospice
The Feb. 19 news article “Carter, longest-living president, opts for home hospice” provided a generally helpful description of hospice but included an inaccuracy. It said that hospice is for those who have “chosen to suspend treatment.”
As a certified hospice nurse practitioner and health policy consultant for national hospice organizations, I need to point out that hospice is its own kind of very special medical treatment. Perhaps a better way to describe it would have been to say hospice is a “special treatment for patients who have chosen to focus on comfort, quality of life, and support for themselves and their families.”