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What to Expect… The first step is the “Referral”. A referral for hospice care can come from anyone. You may have a family member, neighbor, or friend that may benefit from hospice care and you may call the hospice to find out information for them. This is what we call a “community referral”. While speaking with you regarding hospice care, we encourage you to contact your attending physician to let him or her know that you are interested in a hospice referral. Even though anyone can refer to hospice, we are required to have the physician’s permission before an evaluation can be made. Another scenario may be that your physician may speak with you regarding hospice care and calls the hospice to give them information regarding your case. This is called a “direct physician referral”. However the referral is made, the family is contacted and the patient’s attending physician is directly involved. The next step of this process is the evaluation visit. Our Admissions Coordinator, who is a registered nurse, will make contact with the patient and family within twenty-four hours of the referral to set up an evaluation visit. Sometimes, this may happen in a matter of hours after the referral, depending on the needs of the patient and family. This visit usually takes several hours. During this visit, our Admissions Coordinator explains the hospice benefit, available services, patient’s rights and responsibilities, explains how a patient elects the hospice benefit, completes a history and physical and a complete body systems assessment. Pain control and symptom management are a crucial part of this assessment. By completing this assessment, our Admissions Coordinator begins to formulate a unique plan of care just for you and your family. This visit also allows for the family and patient to ask questions regarding hospice. This also gives the Admission Coordinator an opportunity to educate the family and the patient on all aspects of hospice care. During this visit, the patient or patient’s caregiver will sign papers in order to enroll in and elect hospice care. The Admissions Coordinator will also set the frequency of visits from our other staff members such as the Case Manager, Case Coordinator, Social Services, Home Health Aides, Chaplain, and Volunteers. Not only are the discipline frequencies set, the Admissions Coordinator also orders any medical equipment, medical supplies, and related medications that are needed. Another piece of the admission process requires a visit from our Social Services department. This visit will be made within the first week after admission. This visit consists of a complete psycho-social assessment. This component of the process allows us to further tailor a plan of care that is unique as you are. This visit is yet another opportunity for the patient and the family to ask questions regarding the hospice program. We always encourage our families to call with questions because if it is important to you it is important to us. We realize that this is a lot of information to absorb and understand. You may even have more questions after our Admissions nurse leaves. We want you to know that we are only a phone call away no matter what the need may be. |
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