When someone you love is living with a serious illness, you'll hear two words a lot: palliative care and hospice. They sound alike, and both focus on comfort, so it's easy to assume they mean the same thing. They don't. Knowing the difference can help your family get the right support sooner, often without giving up any treatment your loved one still wants.
This guide explains what each one is, how they differ, and how palliative care at home works for families in Salt Lake County.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is medical care focused on comfort and quality of life for people living with a serious or complex illness. The goal is to ease symptoms such as pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, nausea and anxiety, and to help patients and families make care decisions that fit their goals.
The most important thing to know is that palliative care can start at any stage of an illness. A patient can receive palliative care while still seeing specialists, taking their usual medications, and continuing treatments meant to control or cure their condition. Palliative care works alongside that care. It doesn't replace it.
At Dvora Healthcare, our physician and nurse practitioner provide palliative care at home, in assisted living, in memory care and in independent living communities across Salt Lake County.
What Is Hospice?
Hospice is a specific type of comfort care for people near the end of life. Under Medicare's hospice benefit, a doctor certifies that the patient has a terminal illness with a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness runs its normal course, and the patient chooses comfort care instead of treatment aimed at curing the illness.
Hospice is delivered by a hospice agency with its own team. Dvora Healthcare is not a hospice provider. If hospice becomes the right choice, our team can talk it through with you and help coordinate with the hospice your family chooses.
Palliative Care vs. Hospice at a Glance
When it can start: Palliative care: Any stage of a serious illness. Hospice: Near the end of life, when a doctor certifies a life expectancy of six months or less.
Treatment to cure or control the illness: Palliative care: Can continue. Hospice: Usually stops for the terminal illness.
Main goal: Palliative care: Comfort, symptom relief and quality of life. Hospice: Comfort and dignity at the end of life.
Where it happens: Palliative care: Home, assisted living, memory care, independent living, or other settings. Hospice: Usually where the patient lives.
Signs Palliative Care Could Help
Families often wait longer than they need to before asking about palliative care. You might consider it if your loved one:
Has a serious illness such as heart failure, COPD, cancer, dementia, Parkinson's disease or kidney disease
Has symptoms that make daily life hard, like pain, breathlessness or poor sleep
Has been to the hospital or emergency room more than once recently
Finds it tiring or difficult to get to appointments
Is facing hard decisions about treatment and wants help understanding the options
None of these mean someone is "giving up." They're reasons to add another layer of support.
What Palliative Care at Home Looks Like
With Dvora, palliative care visits come to the patient. That matters for people who tire easily or for whom a trip to a clinic is a real burden. A typical visit can include:
Symptom management: reviewing what's bothering the patient most and adjusting the plan.
Medication review: making sure medications still fit the patient's goals and aren't causing side effects that add to the problem.
Goals-of-care conversations: talking through what matters most to the patient, and putting it in writing so the whole care team knows.
Care coordination: keeping specialists, the patient's other providers, caregivers and family on the same page.
Many patients with serious illness also have several long-term conditions. In that case, palliative care can pair with chronic care management, which adds monthly care planning and coordination between visits. Ongoing in-home primary care can cover everyday medical needs too.
Does Medicare Cover Palliative Care?
Palliative care visits from a physician or nurse practitioner are billed under Medicare Part B like other provider visits, so the usual deductible and coinsurance apply. You don't have to be in hospice, and you don't have to be homebound. Dvora accepts Medicare and Medicare Advantage. Call us to check whether your plan covers house calls, or read more on our Medicare and house calls page.
Palliative Care Across Salt Lake County
Our physician and nurse practitioner visit patients throughout the county, including Salt Lake City, Sandy, Murray, Holladay, Millcreek, West Jordan and Draper. See every city we serve on our service areas page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can someone get palliative care and still see their specialists?
Yes. Palliative care works alongside the patient's other care. They can keep seeing specialists and continue treatments they want.
Does choosing palliative care mean moving to hospice later?
No. Some patients receive palliative care for a long time. If hospice ever becomes the right fit, that's a separate decision the patient and family make.
Does Dvora Healthcare provide hospice?
No. Dvora provides palliative care, primary care, chronic care management and transitional care. We can help coordinate with a hospice agency if your family chooses one.
Can palliative care visits happen in assisted living or memory care?
Yes. Our physician and nurse practitioner see patients in private homes, assisted living, memory care and independent living communities across Salt Lake County.
How do we get started?
Call us at (801) 407-9409 or request care online. If you're a case manager or facility staff member, use our Refer a Patient page.