of interest in it by hospitals and other health facilities the last acts ... care hospice care is a specialized and intensive form of palliative care that ... emphasizes quality of life and life-closure issues managing disease ... processes so as to minimize suffering and helping patients and their families ... advanced illnesses it promotes comfort and support for patients and their families ... of a life-threatening illness and thereby facilitating opportunities for ... living with as much peace dignity and personal control as possible even as ... this country from england in the 1970s and codified in part through the 1982 ... alexandria va-based national hospice and palliative care organization nhpco ... standardsand accreditation committee the ultimate ... outcomes for terminally ill patients and their families 1 self-determined life ...