What Does Comfort Care Mean

It is care that helps or soothes a person who is dying.

What does comfort care mean. Comfort care means that no interventions are done to actively treat the patient. It is typically administered to patients who have already been hospitalized several times with further medical treatment unlikely to change matters. Comfort care is defined as a patient care plan that is focused on symptom control pain relief and quality of life.

Rodney tucker director of uab s center for. In making this decision meanwhile patients may not only end up enjoying a better quality of life some even live longer. This means no routine blood work or x rays it may mean stopping certain medications like antibiotics.

Comfort care does not mean giving up or hastening death. When a patient can no longer benefit from curative treatment comfort care can allow a better quality of life at the end of life. When a patient has entered the final days of life it makes sense to stop daily blood work and potentially futile medications and to focus on comfort care.

In the u s hospice organizations are the primary providers of community based palliative care and comfort care services. The goals are to prevent or relieve suffering as much as possible and to improve quality of life while respecting the dying person s wishes. Rather it means a shift in focus from curing a particular ailment to comfort quality and dignity according to tucker.

These symptoms can include pain shortness of breath or even anxiety about their condition. You are probably reading this because someone close to you is dying. Comfort care is a form of medical care not an abandoning of it i think that using the term comfort care is a bit of a misnomer says dr.

Comfort care reflects the fundamentals of hospice and palliative care while hospice care provides the most comprehensive array of covered services.