What's the Difference Between Hospice and Palliative Care?

Palliative care is comfort-focused medical care for anyone living with a serious illness, at any stage, and it can be provided alongside curative treatment — a person can be receiving chemotherapy and palliative care for pain and symptom management at the same time. Hospice is a specific, more defined benefit: it requires a physician to certify a terminal prognosis (generally six months or less if the disease follows its expected course), and it generally means stepping away from curative treatment for the terminal condition in favor of comfort-focused care. Both can be delivered in a private home, an assisted living community, or a memory care setting in the Columbus area, and both involve an interdisciplinary team — physician, nurse, social worker, chaplain — built around the patient's goals. Families sometimes move from palliative care into hospice as an illness progresses, though not everyone receiving palliative care ever needs or qualifies for hospice. Our full guide to hospice and palliative care in central Ohio covers Ohio licensing, the four Medicare levels of care, and local providers in more depth. See how hospice specifically works in Ohio for licensing and payment details.