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HSC Medical Center offers two acute hospice beds on the second floor of the hospital. Hospice Home Care manages the beds and provides an interdisciplinary care team. HSCMC staffs the two beds for routine care. Dr. Bruce Burton serves as medical director of the unit. Within hospice, there are four levels of care as defined by Medicare. HSCMC provides the level defined as Short Term Inpatient Stay. Patients may qualify for hospitalization in these hospice beds because of a crisis related to their hospice diagnosis, such as pain management. A patient is not admitted to these beds indefinitely and an admission should not be viewed as a replacement for nursing home care. Patients who are admitted to the new acute hospice beds will either already be hospice patients or will be newly entering a hospice program. Hospice patients generally have a life expectancy of less than six months and want to die in a home environment. Patients on hospice waive their Medicare Part A benefit and therefore are not expected to be in and out of the hospital frequently. Rather, the patient is managed in their home environment as much as possible. By offering the acute hospice beds, HSCMC makes available to our community services that previously were only offered out of the area. Hospice patients in crisis are now able to stay closer to home when acute hospitalization is needed.
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