Housecall Providers has received two grants, totaling $328,750, to create a home-based palliative care service for patients currently being served by the organization. The three-year grants to trial this program are from Meyer Memorial Trust and The Collins Foundation, both long-time supporters of HCP’s innovative programs. The funds will support the creation of Housecall Providers’ “official” palliative care team, whose role it will be to bridge the gap between our primary care and hospice services. Many times our patients are close to being hospice-appropriate and require additional medical support that a single primary care provider alone cannot provide.
The transition team, created to support our participation with Independence at Home, was by design a pilot to rolling out a palliative care program. Throughout the three years it has been in place, the team was able to collect data and show positive quality metrics each year that supported an increase in care to our patient population that is high-risk for multiple emergency department visits and hospitalizations.
The focus of palliative care is relieving symptoms that cause suffering and finding the best quality of life as chosen by a patient and their family. Palliative care employs an interdisciplinary team approach (primary care provider, nurse, social worker and a chaplain) similar to hospice, to provide holistic care to improve physical and psychosocial symptoms.
We are currently hiring for a social worker and a registered nurse to be part of our palliative care team. If you or someone you know is interested in being part of an organization that is helping to provide the highest level of care for our community’s homebound and chronically ill members, while playing a key role in the national discussion surrounding home-based medicine, please visit the Careers page on our website to view the job descriptions.
