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Hospice Services

Your care team includes: 

  • a physician, either the patient’s private doctor or an Avow Hospice physician, who oversees the medical care
  • an Avow Hospice nurse, who makes regularly scheduled visits and coordinates the plan of care with other team members

All Avow Hospice physicians and nurses are specially trained in comfort care. Most are certified hospice and palliative care providers (comfort care).

  • a consulting pharmacist, who helps select and monitor the patient’s medications
  • social service coordinators, who help with the psychological and social aspects of the illness and grief
  • complementary therapists who offer massage therapy, music therapy and Reiki treatments to provide added comfort, pain relief and improved quality of life
  • spiritual care coordinators, who provide spiritual support
  • home health aides, who assist with personal care
  • Volunteer Coordinators who assist with placement of specially trained volunteers, who can be helping hands and friendly listeners
  • Doula Companion volunteers, or “end of life coaches,” who are available to patients at risk of dying alone. Doula Companions receive advanced training and commit to being present with patients up to and through the time of death

Treatment goals are aimed to relieve…

  • Physical symptoms - Pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms are controlled as effectively as medically possible
  • Emotional symptoms – The patient and family are helped to cope with emotional distress connected with the illness and impending death
  • Spiritual symptoms – The patient and family are assisted with finding meaning in life and experiencing peace, even in the face of death

In addition to clinical care, Avow Hospice patients have access to prescription medicines, equipment and supplies needed to treat the terminal illness. These items are delivered wherever the patient lives.

Care provided wherever you live…
Hospice is not a building, like a hospital. When most people “enter a hospice program,” they receive care in the comfort of their own home — a house, apartment, mobile home or similar dwelling. “Home” can also be a nursing home, assisted living facility or extended care facility. Sometimes it is a jail cell, shelter or even the woods.

Sometimes patients need a level of care that can’t be provided at home. When that is the case, your care team may recommend short-term care in an inpatient facility such as the Frances Georgeson Hospice House.