I urge anyone needing or considering Hospice in-home or in-patient services to shop around, take your time (if possible), and consider all the options. Do not judge by physical appearance...it is competence and compassion and your feelings that matter. Not everyone cares because they use the term "Hospice". Assume nothing about their care, personalities or humanitarian priorities. My family was shocked by the nurses and social worker who came to the house. Our emotional states were completely ignored and we felt worse and more stressed by them. One nurse (who is an administrator) treated us in a hyper, scolding, bizarre manner like disobedient children. She should not be dealing with families.
The manipulative, abrasive, arm twisting that resulted in my patient being removed from home within 2 hour's notice riles me to this day. Such behavior on the part of the Director of "Counseling", of all people, was beyond unethical, insensitive and blatantly unprofessional. The patient and family decide what step to take---not a person we never spoke to before. It was unconscionable and simply not protocol never mind how our emotions were crushed and deemed irrelevant by this forceful "counselor". We never heard from Cheryl Koerber prior to her decision that the patient be removed. The behavior and motive behind how it all happened was confirmed by a former staff member that I know professionally. Always consider the motives of this place, If the census (number of beds filled) is low---beware of being completely blindsided by THEIR erroneous, money seeking behaviors. They will also hold a patient who no longer actually qualifies for Hospice in order to collect more money. Our patient didn't really qualify to begin with but the nurse who did the assessment told us what she was looking for as a reason to be on Hospice "care".
It also would have been appropriate care if an in-patient nurse knew how to take a temperature and if meals had been ordered for the patient by one of the many (for the most part) kind volunteers when family wasn't there to do so. Twice our patient didn't have a meal delivered. At most there were twelve adult patients at full census but no one realized meals weren't delivered. Plates and trays were left in the room an there the next day when I visited. I watched dust build up on the dresser and stains stay on the floors. Our request for a simple "quality of life" activity were ignored and it took five weeks of asking before any discussion took place about what we could expect from Hospice. There were zero discussions about the condition of the patient until we heard they were no longer qualified. A room awaited them in another place. Regional Hospice canceled the ambulance ride to the nice place we arranged for and charged for extra time despite the fact that the patient no longer qualified for Hospice. Our family actually anticipating that they would pull something like this and they did. We had to take time off from work based on the original plans and received a call at 4:25 on a Friday afternoon. When I called back----everyone involved had left work already. This was a well worn tactic used so we could never reach anyone with a concern about a message left---always after 4 PM. We made it clear when we were available but calls didn't come then. What mattered was money and their convenience.
Be very cautious when a Hospice or place for the elderly uses the word "availability". They legally get away with keeping people or refusing to say there is a bed at a nursing home, for example, by using this word. It is about the money and until they see a bank statement -- "availability" falsely determines what is available. What about the feelings of the patient and the family and friends? We met employees who, rather than tending to our needs, ignored them. A friend of mine was a Director of Chaplaincy at another Hospice. He called our experience with Regional "horrific". My grief counseling a year later was done with another Hospice on the coast of Connecticut. There I learned what Hospice really should be. Regional was one of the worst experiences of my life at the most stressful, tragic and sad time in my life. read more