How are hospice and palliative care different?

Hospice and palliative care both try to provide a better quality of life and relief from symptoms and side effects for people with a serious illness. Both have special care teams that address a person's physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual needs. Hospice care often includes palliative care, but they are not the same thing.

• Hospice care is given when a person’s medical condition cannot improve by traditional treatment. Hospice focuses on managing symptoms and side effects. Hospice care is given to people during their last 6 months of life.

• Palliative care can be given at any time during a serious illness such as cancer. Palliative care can be provided while the person is receiving treatment to cure or control their disease. In other words, it can be given at the same time as chemo, radiation or other treatments.

What the care teams do:

• A hospice team coordinates most of the care during a person’s last 6 months of life.

• A palliative care team works with the person's medical team to help manage their symptoms and treatment side effects. 

While hospice care focuses on comfort, it is a specific type of palliative care. Here are the key differences: