Common Terminal Diagnoses and Medical Criteria for Referral to Hospice Care
Common terminal conditions and the medical criteria indicative
of advanced illness.
Patients are eligible for hospice only if all of the following
conditions are satisfied.
Attending physician certifies that patient has a terminal condition
with an expected life span of 6 months or less.
Patient decides to forego life prolonging therapies.
Patient does not have to be a DNR to be eligible for hospice.
No home hospice can refuse to admit a patient just because s/he
opts to remain a “full code”.
However, this could be a red flag regarding disagreement regarding
the focus of hospice as being on symptom management as opposed
to curative disease modifying treatment. This should be carefully
discussed and documented. However, as an example, patients with
advance Congestive Heart Failure should remain on their ACE inhibitor
and diuretics as tolerated as these treatments are certainly palliative
and help control symptoms while at the same time they may be life
prolonging.
