A hospice program is a coordinated program which provides palliative care to patients, and supportive services to patients, their families, and significant others, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in both home and in-patient settings.  Physical, social, spiritual and emotional care is provided during bereavement by a medically directed interdisciplinary team consisting of patients/families, professionals and volunteers. Hospice services embrace the physical, spiritual and psychosocial needs of both the patient and the family.  The emphasis is on palliative (comfort care) rather than curative treatment of the disease.  Palliative care utilizes those therapies and treatments, which enhance patient comfort and establish relief of pain and distress.  The goal of hospice is to help the patient live qualitatively all the way to the end through appropriate medical care, adequate emotional, psychological and spiritual support. 

Hospice is sensitive to the uniqueness of people’s needs, beliefs, values, culture, and lifestyle choices as they affect and influence decisions about treatments, services, goals of care and what individuals want to achieve in the last days of their lives.