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I concur with your comments. My father died with hospice care in 2006. He was in hospice 6 weeks, and received reasonably good care. Continuity of care was challenged by the lack of nursing staff. I think we say at least 3 different nurses, sometimes they were unable to come when promised, and we never knew which nurse would show up. He did receive bathing assistance, but the only other hospice person involved was a social worker who appeared obviously stressed and overbooked. This was in Washington state and I fear Oregon is no different. My mother was in hospice care here in Portland for only 5 days and saw at least 3 different nurses.

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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Our family has had 2 experiences with Hospice. Two issues to comment on:
1) It's very important for potential users of hospice care to realize that hospice, in itself, will not guarentee that you will be able to remain in your own home. Hospice does not provide the 24/7 care needed many times for that to happen.
2) A diagnosis is needed to order hospice. My mother was being treated by her physician in WA, but no effort was made to diagnose what actually was causing her symptoms. After she had several falls in 2007 with declining health, I brought her to Portland. The 1st physician she saw got her the testing necessary to diagnose her kidney tumor. Within 5 weeks she was on hospice, and died 1 week later. She would had died a very uncomfortable death without hospice care.

posted 4 years, 10 months ago
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