Issues in the Current Treatment of Hospice Patients with HIV Disease

Abstract

Hospice administrators and clinicians face many complex issues regarding the treatment of persons terminally ill with AIDS, at one end of the spectrum of HIV disease. Among these issues are: whether the hospice model applies to persons with AIDS; at what point does the person with AIDS receive palliative rather than curative therapy; and what alternatives exist for hospice care if the AIDS patient has no primary care provider or no home in which to receive care. This article delineates and discusses these issues.