Routine Home Care: Routine home care is provided by the Zion’s Way Hospice team on a regular basis within the comfort of the patient’s home, wherever that may be.

Respite Care: During each certification period, Medicare will pay up to five days of respite care. This care includes the admitting of a patient into a skilled facility where he or she will be cared for by a professional staff. While respite care benefits the patient, it also gives the primary caregiver a break. After five days of respite care, the patient returns home where the primary caregiver resumes caring for their loved one with the help of the Zion’s Way Hospice staff.

General Inpatient: When patients have symptoms that the hospice agency is unable to control at home, the patient may be placed in a skilled facility in order to regain control of those symptoms. Also, if the primary caregiver gets sick or is injured, thus disabling his or her ability to care for a loved one, the patient may be placed in a skilled facility allowing the primary caregiver adequate time to rest and recuperate.

General inpatient care may be required for procedures necessary for pain control or acute or chronic symptom management that cannot feasibly be provided in other settings. Skilled nursing care may be needed by a patient whose home support has broken down if this breakdown makes it no longer feasible to furnish needed care in the home setting.

General inpatient care under the hospice benefit is not equivalent to a hospital level of care under the Medicare hospital benefit. For example, a brief period of general inpatient care may be needed in some cases when a patient elects the hospice benefit at the end of a covered hospital stay. If a patient in this circumstance continues to need pain control or symptom management, which cannot be feasibly provided in other settings while the patients prepares to receive hospice home care, general inpatient care is appropriate.

Continuous Care: Depending upon the desires of the patient’s family, Zion’s Way Hospice is prepared to provide continuous care for the patient during the last 24 to 72 hours of life. The hospice staff will do all they can to control any pain the patient may be experiencing, explain details of the patient’s condition to the family, and provide the family the opportunity to rest as the end of life process can be physically, emotionally and spiritually draining.

Weekly Visits:

Certified Nurse’s Aides: CNA visits are generally made three to five times per week or as a patient’s needs require. They assist the patient with bathing, dressing, light housekeeping, etc.

Nurses: Nurses will visit the patient at least once a week as required by Medicare. Zion’s Way Hospice nurses prefer two visits per week. As the patient’s health declines, the weekly nursing visits may be increased.

Social Workers: Social work visits are dependent upon the needs of the patient and the family.

Spiritual Caregiver: Spiritual caregiver visits are also based upon the needs of the patient and the family.

Complementary Care Specialists: The complementary care specialists, unique to Zion’s Way Hospice, visit the patient or the family according to their needs. They provide services such as aroma, music, art and pet therapies, therapeutic touch and licensed massage.

Volunteers: Volunteers can comfort patients in a variety of ways, making visits as needed.