Hospice vs. Palliative care: What's the difference?
11/13/2025 by Andy Bock, D.O.
Your mother has just been diagnosed with lung cancer. The cancer has spread to other parts of the body. She is not sure she wants to go through chemotherapy. Now what?
The first step is having a discussion with your mother's medical care team. There are options available to provide the best quality of life for patients with a serious illness.
Hospice care
Hospice care provides symptom management and some nursing care for patients with terminal illnesses. Hospice care is designed to help patients live as well as possible by aggressively treating their symptoms and attending to their quality of life.
Palliative care
This medical specialty is also designed to help patients live as well as possible by partnering with the patient's care teams to focus on managing symptoms as they undergo disease-directed therapy, such as chemotherapy, dialysis or hospitalization for heart failure.
But how do you choose?
This decision is best made with the patient's primary care clinician.
If the patient's priority is comfort and quality of life, they may be referred to hospice. The hospice team will provide visits from a nurse, chaplain, social worker and home health aide as needed. In addition, the hospice agency will provide durable goods like a hospital bed and medications to provide comfort. The hospice team will work closely with family and friends to provide the hands-on care needed for the patient. The hospice team cares for patients in their home, assisted living facility, nursing home or a free-standing hospice facility if available. Not all patients qualify for hospice.
Palliative care may be recommended if the patient wishes to continue disease-directed therapies while receiving advanced symptom management. Palliative care is often provided in an outpatient clinic similar to primary care. Palliative care specialists also see patients in the hospital, nursing home or their homes. The focus of care is to assist with complex medical decision-making and management of symptoms such as pain, nausea, shortness of breath, fatigue, spiritual distress and mood changes. The palliative care specialist provides medication prescriptions to help control symptoms. They can also assist with the decision to transition to hospice care.
Discuss your goals and concerns with your primary care clinician if you or your family are unsure which path to take.
Andy Bock, D.O., is a physician in the Division of Community Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, and Palliative Care, Section of Palliative Medicine. He is board-certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. His interests include improving physician communication and complex medical decision-making, including advanced care planning and end-of-life shared decision-making.