End-of-Life Care & Palliative/Hospice Principles

Palliative care focuses on comfort and quality of life and can be provided alongside curative treatment at any stage of a serious illness — it is not limited to patients who are dying. Hospice care specifically supports patients with a prognosis of approximately six months or less if the disease follows its expected course, and shifts the goal of care from curative/life-prolonging treatment to comfort — a patient can typically only be enrolled in hospice once they and their provider agree to stop pursuing curative treatment for the terminal diagnosis.