Graduation from Hospice is Bittersweet
05 August 2015 | webmaster
You might think hearing news that you no longer qualify for hospice care would make your day. However, once you and your family experience the compassionate care and support of hospice, you might not want to give it up!
To qualify for the Medicare hospice benefit, patients must be certified by their physicians as having a life expectancy of six months or less and, while in the program, show progressive decline in their condition. When a patient chooses hospice care, they no longer seek cure which often means they have exhausted, or are exhausted from, regiments of treatments and procedures. Once reprieved and in the comforting arms of the hospice team, it is not uncommon for patients to see improved health conditions.
When a hospice patient’s condition no longer meets Medicare criteria, their hospice must comply with Medicare rules and discharge the patient from care. Good news maybe, but often bittersweet.
Here at Avow, however, we don’t just discharge our patients, we graduate them!
Shown in the photo is Avow social worker Daniel Riggs and clinical manager and former field nurse Linda Mitchell posing with Avow graduate Mr. Michael Sapoznik who expressed the following in a note to Avow following his “graduation.”
“We wish to thank the Avow staff for all their wonderful care. It is a blessing to have them touch our lives.”
But ‘graduation’ doesn’t end Avow’s care for our patients. We check in with former patients every two weeks or so to make sure they’re feeling well – and to be sure they know we’re here for them 24/7, should they need our services again. Compassionate care when you need it – it’s more than a promise, it’s Avow.
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