No. Hospice care is delivered wherever the patient lives -- a private home, an assisted living community, or a nursing facility -- and is also available at dedicated inpatient hospice units for patients who need a higher level of symptom management than can be managed at home.
More detail
This flexibility is one of hospice's defining features and often surprises families who assume 'going on hospice' means a move to a new facility. VITAS Healthcare operates a dedicated inpatient hospice unit in the Milwaukee metro, at Ruth House in West Allis, specifically for situations where a patient's symptoms need a level of round-the-clock management that's hard to sustain at home even with hospice support, but most hospice patients nationally, and in this metro, receive care in their existing home or care setting rather than moving to an inpatient unit. Ask any hospice provider directly what determines whether inpatient-level care becomes appropriate for a specific patient.
