Hospice

Hospice Care: Comfort, Support, and Presence

Serious illness changes what is possible, hospice offers a way to focus on comfort, time together, and what matters most in this season of life. Hospice comes to you, at home, in assisted living, or in a nursing facility, and surrounds both the person and the family with a steady, experienced team.

What is hospice?

Care that focuses on comfort and quality of life when cure is no longer the goal.

Hospice is specialized care for people living with a serious, lifelimiting illness when the focus shifts from trying to cure the illness to living as comfortably and meaningfully as possible with it. The hospice team works to ease pain and other symptoms, support daily life, and help families spend more time together and less time in the hospital.

Is hospice for us?

Hospice is always a choice. It becomes an option when there is a serious, lifelimiting illness, a clinician estimates that life expectancy may be about six months or less if the illness follows its usual course, and the goal of care shifts from trying to cure the illness to living as comfortably and meaningfully as possible with it. Choosing hospice does not mean care stops; it means a different kind of care begins, centered on comfort, support, and time together.

What does hospice provide?

Hospice typically includes:

  • A hospice team: nurse, aide, social worker, chaplain or spiritual care provider, physician, and others as needed. .
  • Medications for pain, shortness of breath, anxiety, nausea, and other symptoms connected to the serious illness.
  • Equipment and supplies such as a hospital bed, walker or wheelchair, oxygen equipment, and wound care or incontinence supplies if needed.
  • Different levels of care, including regular home visits, short term extra support during a crisis, brief inpatient care when symptoms are too hard to manage at home, and short term respite care to give family caregivers a chance to rest.

In general, anything related to the illness that is the reason for being on hospice is covered through the hospice benefit. If there are questions about specific medicines or services, our team will review them with you in plain language before any costs are incurred, so there are no surprises.

How do we get started?

Simple steps, at your pace.

1. Share information

  • We start by talking together—either in person or on the phone—about what hospice is, how it works, and what it might look like for you and your family. This is a chance to ask questions and say what you are hoping for or worried about.

2. Review the medical situation

  • With permission, our team reviews the medical situation with your provider to see whether hospice is the right level of care. Your doctor’s input is essential, and in our community your regular doctor usually stays your doctor while hospice comes alongside.

3. Decide together

  • If hospice seems appropriate, the patient, family, and provider usually make the decision together. We then review the forms in plain language, talk through medicines, equipment, visit schedules, and who to call with questions, and answer anything that is still unclear.

4. Begin care

  • Once everything is signed, hospice care begins. You have a number to call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the team starts visits based on what is needed. Support continues for the family throughout the illness and into the early months of grief. You do not have to sort this out alone; our hospice team and your trusted providers are here to be a steady presence with you.

Program Director

Contact Us

Location: 314 N DeSmet Ave, Buffalo, Wyoming 82834, on the north side of JCHC

Phone: 307-684-6137

Fax: 307-684-6336

Hours of Operation: Monday – Friday, 8:00-4:30 PM, RN on call 24/7

Holiday Closures: Memorial Day; Independence Day; Labor Day; Thanksgiving Day; Christmas Day; New Year’s Day