COPD

​If you or a loved one suffers from COPD, you know that it can significantly affect your life and your lifestyle. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, and the mortality rate keeps rising despite new treatments. In 2014, 6.8 million Americans were newly diagnosed with COPD. The rise is related to the increasing number of women smokers, and also because former smokers are aging and becoming symptomatic. COPD frequently co-exists with another medical condition or diseases, such as cardiac disease or diabetes, and it can be more symptomatic and harder to manage comfortably, than the primary condition.

How can Hospice of the Western Reserve Help?

Specialty palliative care for patients with COPD can help alleviate symptoms, improve quality of life and decrease hospitalizations. With the help of medications and other interventions offered by a trained staff, patients who are not ready for hospice or do not choose it can benefit from care earlier in their illness. Considering the physical and emotional toll symptoms can take, palliative care aims to ease pain, insomnia and shortness of breath, as well as anxiety, depression and other intense emotions.

Palliative care works with curative care, including aggressive treatment or hospitalization if the patient or the family desires. At Hospice of the Western Reserve, our palliative care team collaborates with patients, families, caregivers, referral sources and other healthcare professionals to provide holistic support for patients with COPD.

We also offer support and direction for patients and families interested in advance care planning and ethical wills. If and when the patient is ready to receive hospice care, the transition is seamless.

We Can Help

Speak with the referral team by contacting us seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Any first visit and admission can be made the first day.

Northern Ohio's Hospice of Choice

More than 1,000 Hospice of the Western Reserve employees and 3,000 volunteers live and work side-by-side in the same neighborhoods with our patients and families. We are privileged to have cared for more than 100,000 Northern Ohioans since our inception.