How Hospice Can Help

If your family is coping with a life-limiting illness, Horizon Hospice and Palliative Care can help. Give Horizon a call at 312-733-8900. We are ready to answer your questions and assist you in any way.

Horizon serves those in Cook, Dupage, Lake and Will Counties.

Horizon is certified by Medicare and Medicaid, licensed by the Illinois Department of Public Health and accredited by the Joint Commission.

Horizon provides the best quality of life possible for your loved one, with care that includes the following:

• Expert pain and symptom management by physicians and nursing staff.
• Emotional and spiritual support for your family and friends by social workers and chaplains.
• 24/7 availability by phone.
• Regular visits in the patient's home or residential facility.
• Companionship and assistance from trained volunteers.
• Complementary and alternative therapies, such as art and music therapy, massage therapy and aromatherapy.
• Other therapies, such as speech, physical or occupational therapy, as needed.
• Medications and laboratory testing related to the hospice diagnosis
• Medical equipment, such as a hospital bed or oxygen tanks.
• We provide bereavement support through counseling and support groups after a loved one has died.

If your loved one is living at home, we do everything we can to keep him or her there.

• We assist family caregivers in learning how to care for the day-to-day needs of their loved one.
• We provide home health aides to provide showers/baths or other personal care for your loved one.
• We carefully monitor your loved one's condition so we can help before any crisis may arise.
• We provide friendly volunteer visitors so caregivers can get some respite away from the home for a few hours.

If your loved one is in a nursing home or extended care facility, we collaborate with facility staff to enhance his or her quality of life:

• We work collaboratively with facility staff to ensure pain and symptom management.
• We provide emotional, spiritual and practical support to patient family members.
• We provide extra nursing, social work and chaplain visits to your loved one at the facility to enhance quality of life. Other healthcare professionals, such as massage therapists, may also provide services to your loved one.
• We provide extra equipment, when needed.

What is hospice? Here are the FAQS

Hospice is not a place, but a practice and philosophy of care for those nearing the end of life. Hospice care focuses on the comfort and quality-of-life goals of the patient and his or her family rather than on curing the illness.

Who can receive hospice services?

Hospice care is delivered to patients whose physicians determine to have a life expectancy of six months or less. The patient must also decide to discontinue curative treatment. Should a patient live beyond that six-month time frame, they may be able to be recertified for hospice care and continue with hospice. These are the guidelines set by Medicare and followed by the private insurance industry.

Horizon cares for patients of all ages, from birth through old age. We also care for people from a wide variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

I don't want to give up on curative treatments for my child and or his/her life expectancy is hard to determine. Can you help us?

Yes! Horizon provides palliative care or hospice care for children. Palliative care does not have the Medicaid restrictions that admission to hospice care carries, but it provides the same pain and symptom control and the same emphasis on quality of life. If you have no insurance for us to bill, palliative care for children is free of charge. We can help you through this difficult time.

We work closely with physicians from Children's Memorial Hospital to ensure that the special needs of our pediatric palliative care or hospice patients are met.

What if I can't pay?

Horizon turns no one away for lack of money. Providing care for all in need of services is written into Horizon's mission. Hospice services are covered under Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance. If you are uninsured and do not qualify for Medicare or Medicaid, Horizon will still give you the same respect and care that their other families receive.

Where is hospice care delivered?

Usually, hospice care takes place in the patient's home, nursing home or other extended care facility. Sometimes, however, if a patient's pain and symptoms need constant monitoring, they may be admitted for inpatient care by the hospice team until the crisis is resolved

Who makes up the hospice team?

Hospice patients and their families are served by an interdisciplinary team comprised of physicians, nurses, home health aides, social workers, chaplains, complementary and alternative therapists and volunteers. Other healthcare professionals may also be called in as the need arises. The team works together with the family and patient to ensure that the goals of the patient are being met.

What does the hospice team do?

We aim to make life better for all of our patients and families. In addition to expert pain and symptom management, hospice teams are concerned with enhancing quality of life for the patient and their loved ones. Our teams ask families and patients what their goals for their own care are, and what their life goals might be.

For example, Horizon has assisted families by providing volunteers to give caregivers respite so they can have a break from caregiving and enjoy time with friends. We have helped hospice patients fulfill their dream of marrying their sweetheart, put on an art exhibition of one of our patient's work, and made it possible for one of our young patients to be a police officer for a day. We have helped patients travel so they could spend their last days with loved ones in other states or countries. More simply, we have allowed families to be together at home with their loved one at the end of life. We have offered massage therapy. We have provided family members with emotional and spiritual counsel as they face their loved one's death.

Do you help me cope with my grief?

After the patient has died, we provide support for family and friends with bereavement counseling and bereavement support groups--if the family so desires. It is offered free of charge. Hospice also provides counseling and bereavement support to anyone in the community who would like it, even if they have had no connection with Horizon in the past.