Hospice Services

The Process

Our hospice team partners with patients and families to develop a personalized plan of care to meet their specific needs. The care plan is tailored to one's priorities and values, considering their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.

An interdisciplinary hospice staff including: doctors; nurses; chaplains; medical social workers; certified home health aides; and volunteers, work closely as an integrated team. Our after-hours team members are also available to make home visits whenever a difficulty arises, and we actively respond to changes that develop during weekends or overnight.

Is It Too Early to Consider Hospice?

Hospice care is not curative in goals and treatments. We do not seek to prolong life beyond its natural course, nor does our involvement hasten death in any way. Referrals are usually made when a life-limiting condition is believed to be advancing, when medical intervention has reached its maximum benefit, and when you or your representative decide to focus on maintaining comfort and symptom management rather than curative treatment. Admission to hospice is voluntary and intended for the last six months of life. Your prognosis is reviewed regularly, and you may discontinue hospice if your condition has stabilized or you decide to pursue additional treatment. We support and uphold your familial, religious, and cultural practices, serving community members of all faiths, ethnicities, and cultures. We believe you should come to the end of life with freedom from pain and in loving comfort, combining the power of choice with peace and dignity.

What Types of Care Does Hospice Provide?

Routine home care provides you and your primary caregiver with supportive, intermittent visits from the interdisciplinary team, as well as supplies, equipment, medications, instruction and critical emotional and spiritual support as outlined in the hospice plan of care. These services are available both on a scheduled basis and as needed. We work to address your unique circumstances to access the resources required.

Respite care is designed to give the family or primary caregiver a brief period of respite while the patient receives hospice care in an inpatient setting. This service is provided in a nursing facility and can last up to five days. General inpatient care is the most intensive level of care designed for short-term stays in an inpatient setting for acute pain and symptom management, which cannot be provided in another setting with the goal of returning home on routine home care.

Crisis care (Continuous Care) is a short-term provision for extended visits, a minimum of eight hours or more of daily nursing care. These visits can be continuous or broken up within a 24-hour period and provided in your home or care facility when it is deemed necessary by the team for acute symptom management or in the face of a family crisis. Crisis care aims to stabilize your condition or family situation and then return to routine home care.