What is Hospice

and when should I consider it for my loved one?

Hospice is specialized care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient. Superior Hospice utilizes a holistic approach to prioritize the physiological, emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. The focus of hospice is to enable patients to be comfortable and free of pain, so that they live each day as fully as possible.

Quality of Life

Quality of life is a term commonly used when trying to help patients and families make decisions concerning care near the end of life. It is very important to our Superior Hospice family that our patients lead fulfilling lives.

When to Consider Hospice

  • Diagnosis of a life limiting illness

  • Your doctor decides the patient’s life expectancy is 6 months or less.

  • Patient decline

  • Current curative treatment is no longer an option or patient has decided to stop treatment

When You Should Consider Hospice Care

  • Diminished functional status

  • Increased weakness, fatigue, drowsiness

  • Decreased appetite

  • Progressive weight loss

  • Progressive decline despite medical therapies

  • Multiple hospitalizations/frequent ER visits

  • Uncontrolled Pain

  • Uncontrolled nausea/vomiting

  • Increasing dyspnea

  • Dysphagia

  • Oxygen dependency

  • Ascites

  • Recurrent infections

  • Decline in mental status

Qualifying Diagnoses

  • End Stage Cancer

  • End Stage Pulmonary Disease

  • End Stage Heart Disease

  • End Stage Alzheimer's Disease/Dementia

  • CVA (Cerebrovascular Disease)/Stroke

  • End Stage Acute Renal Disease

  • End Stage Chronic Renal Disease

  • End Stage Liver Disease

  • ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease)

  • Parkinson's Disease

  • End Stage HIV Infection/AIDSa

Contact Us:

If your loved one has any of the above listed diagnoses or one or more of the listed symptoms, please contact us.

Superior Hospice

511 Jenkins St., Suite B, Mansfield, LA 71052

Phone: 318.872.2000

Where to Begin:

To begin hospice care, a referring physician and the Medical Director must agree that a patient has a:

  • Terminal diagnosis

  • Prognosis up to six months, assuming the disease runs its normal course (Six-month prognoses can be renewed, leading to hospice stays lasting longer than six months.)

CMS urges early referrals of terminally ill patients for hospice care, noting:

  • Prognoses do not have to be certain, as some end-stage conditions have unpredictable courses

  • Patients may initially improve in hospice

  • Patients may be in hospice longer than six months