Recognition of the need for special knowledge, skills, and sensitivity grew. Gradually, the institutionally oriented, medically dominated health care system has begun to recognize and become responsive to these needs. The term hospice is derived from the way station or inn, which was a place of succor and rest for weary travelers in the Middle Ages. It is a philosophy of care, not a place. Hospice serves all people perceived to be terminally ill regardless of the etiology of their disease.
Cancer patients exemplify the costs of terminal care.
About half the people in the United States who develop cancer each year do not show marked improvement following major therapy either medical of surgical. Rather, the disease recurs, progresses, and ends in death. Although the cost of care in a hospice is not fully known, the benefits of hospice care increasingly are being validated. Hospice care provides the impetus to integrate the social, emotional, and spiritual components of care into the health center. An emphasis not on cure but on care on the control of symptoms and enhancing the quality of whatever life remains is characteristic of the hospice approach.