| Hospice care is both an ancient and modern form of care.
Original "Hospices" were way stations set up by religious
orders to nurture and restore weary travelers. Our modern concept of
hospice is based upon two hospices opened by the Irish Sisters of
Charity in the nineteenth century: Our Lady's Hospice in Dublin and
St. Joseph's Hospice in London. Both were revolutionary.
Dame Cicily Saunders, M.D., opened St. Christopher's Hospice in
London in 1967. It was opened as a 62-bed inpatient facility. It was
the first hospice to use meticulous assessments of the patient's
physical and psychosocial problems to diagnose pain. Dame Cicily
Saunders is thus considered the founder of the modern hospice movement
worldwide. The first hospices opened in the United States were St.
Luke's Hospital in New York, and in 1974 the Connecticut Hospice in
New Haven.
In 1983, Congress extended Medicare
coverage to include hospice care, and many states now have a Hospice
Medicaid Benefit. Currently, there are over 2,500 Medicare Certified
hospices in the country, most of which provide in-home care.
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