Where Care is Provided

Most hospice care is provided at home or in a home for the dying.

Short-term inpatient care may be provided in a participating hospice inpatient unit, or a participating skilled nursing facility that additionally meets the special hospice patient and staffing standards.

General inpatient care may be required for procedures necessary for pain control or acute symptom management that cannot feasibly be provided in other settings. Skilled nursing care may be needed by a patient whose home support has broken down and it is no longer feasible to furnish needed care in the home setting.

Other examples of appropriate general inpatient care include a patient in need of medication adjustment, observation, or monitoring treatment that cannot be done in the home setting. The plan of care is to return home after the patient’s symptoms have stabilized.

General inpatient care under the hospice benefit is not equivalent to a hospital level of care under the Medicare hospital benefit. For example, a brief period of general inpatient care may be needed in some cases when a patient elects the hospice benefit at the end of a covered hospital stay. If a patient in this circumstance continues to need pain control or symptom management, which cannot be feasibly provided in other settings while the patient prepares to receive hospice home care, general inpatient care is appropriate.

Lifetime Care provides inpatient hospice care and hospice residence care at the free-standing Hildebrandt Hospice Care Center.

St. Ann’s Community provides inpatient hospice and palliative care at the Leo Center for Caring.

To find care elsewhere, view the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of New York State and National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.