The episode will be broadcast on EBS1 at 9:55 pm on Friday, December 27th.
A hospice is a place where terminally ill cancer patients go when they can no longer receive chemotherapy. What we think of as a hospice is a place in a hospital where people prepare for their last days. However, there is a ‘home hospice’ where you can receive treatment at home at the end of your life.
There are many people who want to die at home, but in Korea, the majority of people still die in hospitals.
What if you could receive end-of-life treatment at home with your loved ones rather than in a hospital?
EBS ‘Treat the end of life! In the ‘Home Hospice’ section, we learn about home hospice, where medical staff visits people’s homes and provide treatment, with Professor Kim Cheol-min of the Department of Family Medicine and Professor Kim Se-hong of the Department of Family Medicine.
A home hospice where terminally ill cancer patients can receive treatment at home while receiving medical visits.
Hospice, which helps people face the end of life well by reducing pain and treating various symptoms several months before death, is broadly divided into three types. First, consultative hospice where you receive advice from a hospice expert while receiving general treatment. An inpatient hospice where patients are admitted to a hospice ward and receive treatment. Lastly, there is a home hospice where medical staff visits people’s homes and provides treatment. However, it has only been three years since home hospice was officially introduced in Korea. There are about 39 medical institutions nationwide that provide home hospice, but most medical institutions are concentrated in the metropolitan area, so many patients cannot use it even if they want to. Let’s learn more about what help can be received from a home hospice and how it can reduce a patient’s pain and relieve symptoms at home.
At home, not in the hospital! End your life comfortably with your family!
Medical staff visits your home 3-4 times a week and can respond to emergencies 24 hours a day!
A woman in her 60s had breast cancer that spread to her brain and underwent brain surgery three times. At one point, it was so dangerous that she lost consciousness. However, after using the home hospice for about two weeks, my left hand and left foot, which had not been able to move at the hospital, began to move little by little. Why does a bad place become better during hospice treatment? Home hospice care focuses on the person and their symptoms. Therefore, rather than treating cancer aggressively, symptoms improve due to treatment to alleviate symptoms and the psychological stability gained in a home familiar to the patient. Medical staff visits your home 3-4 times a week to provide treatment. If your condition does not improve, you can consult with medical staff by phone 24 hours a day or be admitted to a hospital room. You may think that having medical staff visit your home like this would incur a lot of costs, but since the hospital receives government support under the Hospice Medical Care Act, the cost borne by the patient each time the medical staff visits is only about 10,000 won.
Palliative treatment that relieves pain and improves quality of life!
As symptoms improve, life expectancy increases!
Palliative care provided at a hospice places the highest priority on reducing patient pain. Therefore, in radiation therapy, unlike ‘curative radiation therapy’ to completely remove cancer, ‘palliative radiation therapy’ is performed, and because the treatment is performed at a low dose, there are fewer side effects. In the case of a man in his 60s, he had terminal esophageal cancer and underwent 16 rounds of chemotherapy and 8 rounds of radiation treatment, but his condition worsened to the point where he could not walk, so he started home hospice care. However, after palliative radiation treatment, shortness of breath disappeared and I was able to walk. Although he was diagnosed with two months to live, he received palliative treatment and has been living his precious life for over ten months, spending happy times with his family. While receiving treatment at home, the time he spent with his son and grandchildren had a positive impact on him. Wouldn’t it be a good death to die painlessly, in a familiar environment, with loving family or friends, while maintaining human dignity?
At EBS, we learn about home-type hospice treatment, which was officially introduced three years ago and not many people are aware of, with Professor Cheol-min Kim of the Department of Family Medicine and Professor Se-hong Kim of the Department of Family Medicine. EBS ‘Treat the end of life! The ‘Home Hospice’ episode will be broadcast on EBS 1TV at 9:55 pm on Friday, December 27th, and can be viewed again on the EBS website.
Economy Queen Reporter Park Yu-mi Photo by EBS
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