Programs | Hospice Home Care | Gordon Hospice House
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Programs - Hospice Home Care

Hospice is distinguished by the comprehensiveness of its services.  We provide extensive help for a wide range of physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs – not only for the terminally ill but also for the caregiver and the family.

Most people prefer to spend their last days at home.  The majority of our patients are able to stay in their own home, surrounded by family and friends.  We can make this happen when a family member or close friend can serve as the primary caregiver with support by the hospice staff. 

Patients and their caregivers can depend on regular visits by our hospice trained registered nurses at least once a week.  These visits, approximately one hour long, will be used to check vital signs, administer medications and discuss symptoms and any other patient and family concerns.  More frequent visits are made, if needed.  In fact, nursing staff is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for any medical need. 

Other hospice caregiving team members, including social workers, volunteers, certified nursing assistants, grief counselors, and chaplains will make regular or periodic visits, depending on the unique care plan developed for each patient.  Many of these visits also are on a regularly scheduled weekly basis.  More frequent visits can always be arranged as the patient or family dictates.

By providing nursing care, personal care, social services, counseling and homemaker services in the home, we help the patient and caregiver live a better life at the end of life.   We provide instruction in caregiving and emotional support that family and friends need to keep going.  Other services include certain medical equipment such as wheelchairs and oxygen, supplies including bandages and catheters, and medications related to the person’s illness.

Programs and counseling that help families with their grief are a major feature of hospice.  This support is for all ages – adults, teenagers and children – and is available from the time a patient is admitted to hospice to 13 months or longer after a death.