The Hospice Program
Considered to be the model for compassionate care at the end-of-life, hospice care involves a team-oriented approach to expert medical care, pain management, and emotional and spiritual support expressly tailored to a person's and their family or care givers' needs and wishes.
Hospice care is a patient-centered approach that includes a team of doctors, nurses, social workers, counselors, and trained volunteers. They work collaboratively focusing on the dying patient's physical, psychological, or spiritual needs. Amongst the goals is helping to keep the patient as comfortable as possible, while supporting caregivers during the illness and after a patient's death.
Hospice has traditionally meant shelter, or a place to rest on a long and difficult journey. Today, for those facing a terminal illness, hospice also means receiving the kind of support that allows patients and their loved ones to live each day as fully as possible.
Program Components/Services:
Hospice services are delivered by a team of caregivers. The team of clinicians and volunteers provides regular visits to a patient's residence, assisting with pain and symptom control, emotional, psychological and spiritual aspects of dying, and providing needed medications, medical supplies and equipment. Clinicians include registered nurses, social workers, home health aids, spiritual care and bereavement counselors, and other specialists as needed. Trained volunteers are also available to provide additional support. Hospice nursing services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide round-the-clock support.
Hospice care is coordinated through the registered nurse and team working in partnership with a patient's own physician and the hospice Medical director. On-going assessment monitors a person's daily status, and seeks to promote comfort and quality of life. GVNA also offers specially trained volunteers in Complementary Care modalities such as Massage Therapy and Reiki, who are available for assignment as available.
In addition, hospice care continues for 12 months following the death of a patient, by offering bereavement support to surviving loved ones. Through visits, phone calls, regular mailings, and support groups or referrals, hospice seeks to support the natural grieving process; participation is voluntary and matches the interests of each survivor.
Program Benefits:
- Allows a dying person to remain at home and in the presence of loved ones.
- Enhances quality of life.
- Focuses on comfort rather than cure of disease, following each person's wishes to living life to the end of their days.
- Equips and supports family members for the care giving role, offering the coaching and other resources needed to provide quality care.
- Provides coordination of care with all providers involved.
Service Locations:
Hospice care is provided in GVNA's service area, which includes Gardner and many of the surrounding communities. Services are extended on a case-by-case basis as needed, and can be provided wherever patients reside: at home, in skilled nursing facilities, or board and care settings as well as others.
Program Eligibility:
- Diagnosis of terminal illness
- Patient no longer receiving curative treatment
- The goals of treatment are primarily pain and symptom control
Payment Methods:
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- Private insurance
- Health maintenance organizations
- Public and private funding
Referrals:
Anyone may make a referral to the GVNA Hospice program; a nursing visit to assess eligibility is available at no charge.
Office Hours:
24/7 availability
GVNA office hours: 7:30 am to 4:30 pm
Monday through Friday
How to Contact Us:
Carol Salmi, RN
978-632-1230 x3003 or 800-382-7305 (voice mail is confidential)
Click here to email Carol Salmi