The patient and the family drive the conversations and plan of care goals for the hospice team. Hospice is meant to empower patients and their families with the knowledge and support necessary to understand and prepare for end-of-life, and patients and families can make this possible by articulating their wishes and fears to the hospice team. Hospice services provide patients and families with the resources necessary to be able to focus on their time together.

Each patient is assigned an RN case manager, who works with the patient’s physician and hospice medical director to coordinate the patient’s plan of care. Each patient is seen a minimum of one time a week by the RN Case Manager, but Allay Home and Hospice is committed to seeing our patients a minimum of two times a week and more often as needed. The RN Case Manager coordinates care with each discipline and supervises the patient’s clinical and personal care to ensure that the patient and family’s needs are met. The RN case manager is also available to serve as a resource to the patient and the family and can offer guidance and support for how to best manage care.

The home health aide assists patients and their families with their personal care needs, such as bathing, and can teach patients and their families techniques to make personal care in the home setting easier to manage. The home health aide can also assist with light housekeeping.

The chaplain is available to provide spiritual support to patients and their families. These services can be combined with the services offered by a patient’s church or spiritual leaders or in lieu of those services if the patient becomes homebound.

Learn more on our Bereavement Services page.

The social worker helps the patient and the family identify resources that will fulfill the needs of the patient while supporting their end of life wishes. Examples include assistance with long-term placement, financial aid programs, and end-of-life planning.

The bereavement coordinator is available to provide grief support and guidance to patients at the end of life. The bereavement coordinator also provides thirteen+ month bereavement for families after the passing of their loved one.

The hospice medical director presides over the interdisciplinary team, which meets regularly to discuss each patient’s plan of care. The medical director is available to the hospice team to assist with needs that might arise between care conferences.

The volunteer coordinator helps patients and families connect to volunteers who can provide companionship and support. These volunteers have often had a personal experience with hospice themselves and have a heart for the people we serve. All patient care volunteers receive initial and annual training, CPR training, and regular background checks.