My Thoughts
With my community being a small rural community there are no local resources that can aid in the end of life care. However, with multiple major hospitals in the surrounding area there are many resources that would be available to someone who lived in the town of Coeymans that needed end of life care. This post will focus on one of the hospital services in my area; St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, New York, which is located thirty minutes away from my community.
St. Peters Palliative Care
St. Peter’s hospital is located 30 minutes from my community. At this hospital they offer a service called Palliative Care through Eddy Visiting Nursing Association, a St. Peters Healthcare Partner. Palliative care is at home care that tries to relieve pain, symptoms and stress after a serious chronic illness has been diagnosed. This care is offered to all ages that are diagnosed with a serious illness such as cancer, lung disease, congestive heart failure and any other advanced illness or disease. Palliative care can also be provided to a patient who is also receiving curative treatment for this illness. Their palliative home care is made of a team of providers to aid in the process of end of life care, this includes palliative care trained nurses who are experts in end-of life care, registered nurses, social workers and a palliative care physician. Palliative care would include the following:
- In-home nursing assessments
- Help in understanding the illness and treatment choices
- Improved comfort and well-being
- Emotional support
- Assistance with advanced care planning (DNR, MOLST, living wills, advance directives)
- Evaluation for physical, occupational and speech therapy and nutritional counseling
- Referral and coordination with other community resources, including Hospice
Below is a short video from a St.Peters palliative care patient talking about his experience with the staff members in his service:
Another service that is offered by St. Peters is called Advanced Illness Management or AIM for short. Which is a service that supports patients with serious illness who do not qualify for insurance coverage for their home based care. This care is for patients who are discharged from hospice that are not homebound or in need of skilled nursing care.
St. Peters Hospice Care
Community Hospice is a St. Peters health partner that offers services to terminally ill, elderly, and serious diseases patients with a life expectancy of six months with end of life care. Community Hospice provides patients with treatment to manage pain and any other symptoms while being in the comfort of their own homes. Community Hospice is driven by comfort-services and compassion during such a difficult time. Community Hospice offers a range of professionals and volunteers to help during this time; such as, nurse, social worker, chaplain, and a home health aide. One service that I loved that Community Hospice offers are the volunteers. The volunteers aid in companionship, transportation, pick-up and delivery of medications, respite and other services, which I believe are so important to have during such a difficult time for the patient and their families. The hospice services from Community Hospice covered by most insurances including medicare and medicaid. There could potentially be deductibles or copays depending on what insurance the patient has. However, Community Hospice mentions that no one is denied hospice services because of an inability to pay. Community Hospice also will do all the billing and paperwork needed for a patient for hospice insurance reimbursement.
Community Hospices COVID-19 Response Fund
This fund was made to help community hospice to help pay for immediate needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The fund helps pay for PPE for the staff members, adding additional staff to their community, and additional equipment such as I-pads to allow patients in hospice to communicate and say goodbye to their loved one virtually. To donate to the Community Hospices COVID-19 Response Fund please use this the provided link.: https://www.givetocommunityhospice.org/covid-19-response-fund/