What Is Continuous Hospice Care?
Continuous hospice care is one of the four levels of hospice care defined under Medicare. It is provided when a patient experiences sudden, uncontrolled symptoms that cannot be managed with routine hospice visits alone.
Continuous care aims to help a patient remain at home while acute symptoms are stabilized. Once recovered, patients transition back to routine hospice care.
What Continuous Hospice Care Includes
- Care at Home: Care and supportive services are delivered where the patient lives, helping avoid unnecessary hospital or inpatient admissions.
- Shift Nursing Support: At least eight hours of care (predominantly skilled nursing care) are provided within a 24-hour period. This can increase as needed during the crisis.
- Symptom Stabilization: Palliation (stabilization and management) of qualifying crisis symptoms: uncontrolled pain, unrelenting nausea/vomiting or diarrhea, difficulty breathing, agitation or restlessness, changes in consciousness, or seizures.
What to Expect From Continuous Care
A physician order is required to initiate continuous care. Eligibility for this level of care is determined based on the patient’s condition by their hospice care team.
Continuous care can also be provided when a caregiver who has normally been providing a skilled level of care (care that would require a nurse’s skill to replace) is no longer willing or able to do so for a limited period. However, continuous care is not intended to provide caregiver respite.
Find the Right Home Hospice Care
Routine Hospice Care
Comfort-focused care with regular visits and ongoing support from a dedicated hospice team.
Continuous Hospice Care
Intensive short-term care delivered at home during periods of crisis.
Pediatric Home Hospice Care
Expert, compassionate care tailored to support children and families facing life-limiting illness.
Admissions
Admission to The Connecticut Hospice is a collaborative process guided by each patient’s needs and goals of care.
Our team works closely with patients, families, and referring providers to ensure the right level of support, in the right setting, at the right time.
A Comprehensive Approach
At The Connecticut Hospice, families and caregivers are an essential part of the care experience. That’s why we support patients and the people who love them together.
Care plans are shaped around shared goals, personal needs, and what matters most in daily life. Our interdisciplinary team works across settings and services to ensure care is coordinated, responsive, and attentive to the emotional, social, and spiritual well-being of everyone involved.
We help bring clarity and compassion to serious illness, so patients and loved ones can focus on the moments that matter most.
How Can We Help?
Make a Donation
As a local not-for-profit, The Connecticut Hospice relies on donor support to provide individualized services and therapies not fully covered by Medicare, Medicaid, or private insurance.
Your generosity helps ensure that every patient and family receives the care, comfort, and support they need, regardless of circumstances.