About Texas Hospice

History of Hospice

The term hospice comes from the same root as the word hospitality. Its origins began when medieval monks would care for ill persons travelling across Europe. Physician Dame Cicely Saunders founded the first modern hospice in London in 1967. She introduced the concept of palliation to an audience of physicians at Yale during a lecture in the 1970’s. What was particularly compelling were the photographs of cancer patients showing marked differences before and after their pain was controlled by a hospice team.