Abstract
Hospice documentation is an integral part of patient care as it not only paints the picture of hospice eligibility, but also tells the final chapter of a patient's life. Increasingly, hospices are under scrutiny by regulators to clearly define the admission and ongoing eligibility of the hospice patient. There is a lack of national standardization of documentation. The World Health Organization, in an effort to develop a common language among providers, developed the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Utilizing the ICF can assist with the documentation that establishes the eligibility of the hospice patient. Concepts from the ICF are applied to a case study of a patient with Parkinson's disease. The ICF has barriers and limitations for documentation of the eligibility of the hospice patient, but overall, its use is recommended by the hospice interdisciplinary team.