No aggressive treatment. Hospice care is what is known as palliative care. It has to do with palliation or relief of symptoms. Those of us who really believe in hospice believe that life and death are sacred.
Death is as much a part of the developmental life cycle as birth.
The fundamental prerequisite to hospice care is the recognition by patient and family that the time for aggressive care is over. You cannot be on hospice care and choose aggressive treatment measures, unless they are for management of a particular set of symptoms. If you decide while on hospice that you do want to seek treatment, you will have to revoke your hospice benefit. If a patient and family are not together on these decisions, it will generally only end up increasing the emotional pain and anxiety of the patient. The main role of hospice is to keep the patient comfortable .