If you are suffering from COPD, they will not give you anything that will help the COPD. If you fall and break a bone, they must treat the broken bone, but nothing else. After a period of time, they start the morphine and you will receive more and more until breathing stops.
I have found many people that don't understand the purpose of Hospice. Hospice is there to end your life peacefully. Getting better from your malady is not in the cards. This was the problem with Terri Shivao. She was in Hospice care and wouldn't die, so they had to murder her outright. They even stopped brushing her teeth to hope an infection would get her.
When you call Hospice you should be ready for a funeral because that is what they are paid to give you. I've found many people that somehow thought their loved one would be allowed to get better and come home if that's what God wanted for them. You give that up when you sign the papers. There also seems to be a time limit. If you aren't dead within a couple of weeks, they step up the morphine. Many people die from something as simple as a UTI because they won't treat it. If you say you want it treated, they withdraw Hospice. The whole purpose is for you to die, not get treatments to save you.
In my father's case there really was no hope of his recovery due to a brain hemorrhage that could not be controlled. We transferred him to hospice care after consulting with neurosurgeons who said that due to the massive damage to the left hemisphere of his brain, there was no way he could recover even if they were to perform surgery. His brain functions were so damaged that he couldn't even cough up the phlegm that was accumulating in his lungs. There was no use in continuing medical treatment for his various ailments, and the continuation of hydration and nutrition would only result in his making even more phlegm which would create an ideal medium for growing bacteria which could lead to pneumonia. His breathing the day before he died was really hard to watch. He died within 16 hours of removing hydration and nutrition.
Wow! If this is the treatment you have seen then you should report them to the state. Hospice is the exact opposite of what you have stated. When you have a patient that is on hospice for COPD, then you HAVE to treat the symptoms associated with COPD with O2, nebulized meds, and any complications related to COPD such as URI with antibiotics. However, if they get a UTI while under services for COPD, the nurse still informs the Dr and gets antibiotics to treat the UTI, but hospice doesn’t cover that antibiotic. And yes Hospice services are withdrawn if the patient gets better, as it should be. However, they are usually transfered to home health for a time to make sure they are still getting better. I’ve worked in hospice for 3 years and have never seen anything like what you have seen. It should be reported.
As I understand it, hospice care is for people whose prognosis is that they have 4 months or less to live. So, yes, it is expected that when someone goes to hospice, they will die there. All the agreements I’ve seen spell it out pretty clearly that the hospice organization is the one that determines what sort of care the person receives. Entering a relative in hospice generally signs away all rights to determine medical decisions.
THAT SAID, a family member of mine DID leave a hospice and live another 15 high quality years. The doctor didn’t bother to do the actual test to determine their condition; he just guessed. After 4 months, she was transferred to another hospice and eventually another doctor took a look at her records. One relatively simple surgery and she went home a few days later to fully recover.