The terminally ill often do not want to spend their last days in a sterile, impersonal hospital environment. They want to die comfortably at home, surrounded by loved ones.

That's where hospice comes in.

"It's a philosophy of care for the terminally ill for patients and families," said Linda Logue, coordinator of Sharon Regional Health System's hospice program.

"We don't think of death anymore as a natural process. We can treat, and treat and treat ... hospice is an alternative to that."

Hospice is not a place; it's a philosophy of care devoted to making a terminally ill patient's last days as comfortable as possible.

"The focus turns from care to comfort," Ms. Logue said. "It does nothing to prolong or shorten life."

A hospice team includes nurses, home health aides, social workers, chaplains, dietary counselors, therapists and volunteers, among others.

Ms. Logue said 80 percent of hospice patients receive care in their homes; 77 percent of them remain at home until they die.

"In our technologically advanced world, we do very complicated treatments. Sometimes something that sounds so simple can work just as well," Ms. Logue said. "Hospice needs to be offered as an alternative, so they (terminally ill patients) know they don't have to spend their final days hooked up to machinery."

Surveys show seven of 10 people want to die at home. In reality, Ms. Logue said, 75 percent of terminally ill people die in a hospital.

Patients who are in hospice care have time with their families; they're not running back and forth to a doctor's office or hospital.

Palliative care, which relieves symptoms but does nothing to cure the disease, allows a patient to be comfortable and without pain.

Patients can become involved in a hospice program by talking with their doctors. Usually, a hospice worker will visit a patient within 24 hours of a request.

"We try to respond quickly," Ms. Logue said.

She added that she would like to see physicians bring up the subject of hospice sooner.

"We would like to have physicians look at us as an option earlier in the disease process," she said. "Referrals need to be made earlier in the disease. We just can't do everything we're able to do in a short amount of time."

If a patient does get better, he or she can leave the hospice program at any time.

Sometimes a patient's family can resist hospice, viewing it as "giving up."

"We hear from families all the time, if you come out and say you're from hospice, that will be the end," Ms. Logue said. "We do nothing to destroy hope. Just sometimes the hope changes. Hope changes from wanting to get better to wanting to be comfortable."