Hospice Care
Hospice, Serving Davis and Wapello Counties provides compassionate care to assist patients with:
- pain and symptom management
- spiritual care by our chaplain
- comprehensive care by our social worker for both patients and their families
- aide and homemaker services
- therapies, including massage, pet, and music
- bereavement and grief support through our bereavement services which provide individual assistance and support as well as group activities
Hospice, Serving Davis and Wapello Counties provides services wherever the patient calls home:
- private residence
- assisted living facility or nursing home
- or anywhere else the patient is residing
"Not enough kind words to say about the great caring staff at Hospice. They are absolutely amazing! Can't thank them enough for their wonderful care."
Hospice care is provided by an interdisciplinary team that includes a:
- physician
- registered nurse
- hospice aide
- social worker
- chaplain
- bereavement services coordinator
- volunteer(s)
- other health care professionals as needed
Levels of care offered include:
- Routine Home Care is the most common level of hospice care. With this type of care, an individual has elected to receive hospice care at their residence, which can include a private residence, assisted living facility, or nursing home.
- General Inpatient Care is provided for pain control or other acute symptom management that cannot feasibly be provided in any other setting. General Inpatient Care begins when other efforts to manage symptoms have been ineffective. General Inpatient Care can be provided in a Medicare certified hospital or nursing facility that has a registered nurse available 24 hours a day to provide direct patient care.
- Continuous Home Care is care provided for 8 to 24 hours a day to manage pain and other acute medical symptoms. Continuous Home Care services must be predominantly nursing care, supplemented with caregiver and hospice aide services and are intended to maintain the terminally ill patient at home during a pain or symptom crisis.
- Inpatient Respite Care is available to provide temporary relief to the patient's primary caregiver. Inpatient Respite Care can be provided in a long-term care facility or hospital that has sufficient 24-hour nursing personnel present on all shifts to guarantee that the patient's needs are met. Inpatient Respite Care is provided for a maximum of 5 days.
Our team develops a plan of care for each patient based on their individual needs. The plan of care determines how often our nurses and other staff members visit the patient. Hospice nurses are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Hospice also provides emotional and spiritual support for the family after the patient's death.
Hospice's team will provide medical care, pain and symptom management, and emotional and spiritual support tailored to the patient’s wishes. As the patient’s needs change, the hospice team will reassess the care needed by the patient and family and provide additional support.
Hospice Accepts Referrals From:
- Patients
- Family Members
- Caregivers
- Friends
- Physicians
- Anyone who knows someone with a life-limiting illness
Hospice Social Worker Services
The Hospice Social Worker serves as a middle person — an impartial party trained to assess the needs of the patient and the family and helps people cope with end-of-life care issues. They are someone you can talk to and who can put you on the right path to navigate through the process.
The Hospice Social Worker wears many hats, including the following:
Educator
- Passes on valuable information to caregivers about how the disease might progress
- Provides strategies and ideas to address various symptoms — such as behavioral and communication techniques
- Provides information on community resources and alternative care options
- Discusses end-of-life care
Counselor
- Provides counseling and psychosocial support by skilled social workers for the patient and the family
Intermediary
- Bridges the gap between various professionals involved in the care of an individual
- Helps to interpret or replay circumstances
- Shares information that may not be evident to others
- Relays the patient's and family's concerns to staff and helps patients and families to understand the difficult and challenging tasks that staff members face
- Addresses matters rationally and impartially that the patient and/or caregiver is uncomfortable addressing with others to ensure that quality care is provided
- Helps smooth the transition to long-term care, if needed, and discusses expectations of nursing home care
Humanizer
- Gains information than can be integrated into the patient's plan of care to maximize the quality of life
- Makes sure the staff and other care providers see the patient as the person who is under the symptoms of the disease
- Makes the various pieces fit when individuals don't have the skills or the focus to tell their life's story in their own words
Rational Thinker
- Assists caregivers when they feel hopeless, lost and overcompensating to the point of making poor decisions
- Affirms a person's feelings — normalizes the family's/caregiver's struggles
- Validates an individual's grief
- Helps families air their feelings, share their concerns, and focus on what they need to focus on
Care Team Participant
- Assesses the needs of the patient and family
- Facilitates sharing the care among family members
- Discusses support symptoms with family and caregivers
Mediator
- Helps family members communicate so they can support one another
- Assures that when multiple parties are involved in a loved one's care that they are all on the same page
Advocate
- When individuals lose the verbal and other cognitive skills to speak for themselves, social workers can be a voice on issues ranging from activities of daily living to end-of-life wishes