Unfortunately, part of the assisted living business concerns end-of-life issues. We really try to focus on healthy living in our homes. At some point though, we have to focus on making people comfortable at the end. Fortunately, we have some great partners that help us with the right care for people who are at the end. Those people work for a Hospice company. And we have some great Hospice Services in Surprise and Goodyear.
There’s a lot of misconceptions about Hospice. One of our Hospice Services in Surprise and Goodyear wrote a blog postfor us to try to help clear up those misconceptions. Don’t get me wrong – Hospice is definitely for end-of-life care. But just because you have made the decision to put your loved one on Hospice, it doesn’t mean it’s the end.
Making the Decision on Hospice Services in Surprise and Goodyear
If your loved one is at the stage where they qualify for Hospice, we would highly recommend it. Hospice is an absolutely free medical service. Medicare picks up the tab. The service includes
- Nurses
- Doctors
- Chaplains
- Social workers and
- Other employees
All of these people are passionately doing whatever they can to make this difficult period comfortable for their patient. And the Hospice services in Surprise and Goodyear that work with us are very good at it. They really help the caregivers and managers in our assisted living homes to greatly improve the end of life time.
Then again…
We really have a passion at our assisted living homes. We try to help our residents “graduate’ from any Hospice services in Surprise and Goodyear they may be on. By “graduate” I mean they become well enough to no longer need any Hospice services. We do this through a combination of very healthy meals and some good exercise.
Although Hospice cannot provide care that actively tries to heal, they can help us help our residents bodies to heal. Consider this:
- The Hospice services in Surprise and Goodyear come to our homes and make the patients feel comfortable.
- We provide nutritious meals and exercise.
- Both Hospice and our assisted living caregivers help with other activities that lift the spirits of the residents.
- And the combination of all of that sometimes results in a resident becoming well enough to “graduate”.
So how do you choose the right Hospice services in Surprise and Goodyear for your loved one? We’ve listed the Hospice companies who we noticed provided the best care for our residents. Each of our caregivers have their favorites and are free to make recommendations. But we do not push any Hospice companies on our families. Ultimately, we understand this is a very important decision for a family. We want to respect that decision and do everything we can to support it.
These hospice services in Surprise and Goodyear don’t only work in hospitals or assisted living homes and larger facilities. They can come to your home and take care of your loved one as well.
Our Recommendations
Here is our list in no particular order. Although we provide their main office address below, please remember that these companies mostly come to you. Your loved one should never have to see the inside of their main offices
Hospice of the West (HOW)
21410 N 19th Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85027. (602) 343-6422 or (888) 490-0377. Hospice of the West is one of our most popular Hospice Services in Surprise and Goodyear. They were the ones who wrote the blog post I mentioned above about the myths of Hospice. In addition to providing regular services to our residents, they go above and beyond to help others.
For instance, on the anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War this year (2019), they came into one of our assisted living homes and performed a ceremony for all our residents that were veterans. It was very moving. All the veterans in our homes really appreciated being honored.
HOW really believes in a team approach to Hospice care. That team includes the people I mentioned above. It also includes the family and friends of their patient. They are very good at communicating with everyone who is concerned about the patient. That way everyone is involved in making the right decisions.
There are only 6 Hospice services in the state of Arizona that have received the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP) certification. Hospice of the West is one of the six. There is a long, involved process to achieving this certification. The certification provides an independent, third-party review of how a Hospice conducts their business. There are many evaluations, assessments and audits of the business. Successful completion of all the reviews earns the certification. The certification means HOW is a top-notch Hospice care company.
Hospice of the Valley (HOV)
1510 E Flower St, Phoenix, AZ 85014(602) 530-6900. HOV is definitely the largest of the Hospice Services in Surprise and Goodyear. They are also the largest in the state of Arizona. Beginning in 1977, Hospice of the Valley has grown to serving approximately 3,000 patients every day. A really nice feature of Hospice of the Valley is that they have a palliative care unit right in Surprise (14066 W Waddell Road, Surprise AZ 85379). If one of our assisted living residents becomes too much for us to handle at our home, HOV can transfer them to their palliative care unit close by. The resident has the same people taking care of them. They just now have a more advanced medical facility to administer the proper care. Just like the rest of the Hospice service, the palliative care unit is completely free to patients.
Hospice of the Valley was also the only Hospice in Arizona chosen to participate in the a national Medicare Model Program. The 3-year program that started on January 1st, 2018 is measuring ways to improve quality of care, lower cost and decrease hospital stays through collaboration with community physicians.
Currently Medicare requires Hospice companies to stop care that promotes healing. Instead they are required to provide palliative care, or care that promotes comfort at the end of life. With this new program, families may select to have both Curative and Palliative care while on Hospice. The thought is that more families will take advantage of Hospice if they don’t have to give up the medical treatment they were receiving. Hospice of the Valley calls this Medicaring. If your family wants to continue the curative treatment, you may want to consider HOV.
Solace Hospice
There is no main office address for Solace. You can reach them 24/7 by phone at (602) 888-7037. Solace is another Hospice that we profiled in one of our earlier blog posts. They provide services in the cities of Peoria, Sun City and Surprise. However, we have had some residents go on Solace at our Goodyear assisted living home as well.
For full disclosure, the previous owner of A Paradise for Parents assisted living homes now owns Solace. Thomas Fedzin sold the homes to us so that he could purchase Solace Hospice. He has a passion for the senior population and loves to help out people whenever he can.
Solace starts with a free consultation and patient assessment. They can go over all the care needs with you. Then they can provide you with a customized list of services that might help. Some of the services include:
- Pain management
- Discussions of emotional and spiritual issues
- Volunteers that can care for your family member in your home while you take a break
- Bathing and grooming services
- Medication deliveries
- Provide medical equipment such as mobility devices or oxygen
Our assisted living homes also provide all those services. Solace can do them for you for free if your loved one is at your house.
Southland Hospice
4527 N 16th St #201, Phoenix, AZ 85016. (602) 497-4100. Southland is very good about educating families about all the services Hospice can provide. They have a lot of great articles on their website to help families understand Hospice. Southland is also very dedicated to finding the right setting for a family in order to make them feel the most comfortable. That setting could be an assisted living home like ours, the patient’s home or a big facility,Southland works with the family to find the right solution.
Southland Hospice is another one of the six Hospice companies in Arizona to achieve the CHAP certification. See more details about this prestigious certification in the Hospice of the West section.
Hospice Promise
12213 W Bell Rd #115, Surprise, AZ 85378. (623) 209-7003. Hospice Promise is the only Hospice on our list that has their main office in the same area as many of our assisted living homes. That makes them very convenient for everything a family might need if their loved one is a resident in one of our homes.
In addition to being close, Hospice Promise is very good about working with veterans. They believe this country made a promise to the veterans to take care of them. Hospice Promise helps to fulfill that promise. Hence the name.
To help veterans, Hospice Promise is part of the national awareness program “We Honor Veterans”. As part of the program, Hospice Promise focuses on creating and nurturing partnerships with other veteran organizations. Those partnerships help improve the care and availability of helpful veteran programs for their patients. They also work hard to:
- Build professional and organizational capacity to provide quality care for Veterans
- Develop and/or strengthen partnerships with VA and other Veteran organizations
- Increase access to hospice and palliative care for Veterans in their community
- Network with other hospices across the country to learn about best practice models
Banner Hospice
10424 W Santa Fe Drive, Sun City AZ 85351. (480) 657-1234. As you may have guessed, Banner Hospice is part of the Banner health company. We featured the Banner Del Webb medical hospital in another blog post. Their Hospice services in Surprise and Goodyear are located in their Banner Boswell Medical Center in Sun City, Arizona.
Obviously, the advantage of the Banner Hospice service is that they have the backing of a very large company behind it. Banner Hospice can work directly with all their medical centers in the area to provide all medical care to their patients. If you like the services you have been receiving from the Banner Health medical services, then adding the Hospice service may be a no brainer. We very much appreciate our relationship with the Banner Health system in Surprise and Goodyear.
Mountain View Hospice
8263 W Thunderbird Rd #120Peoria, Az 85381. (623) 230-3698. Mountain View Hospice is mainly made up of critical care nurses with many years of experience. We’ve found their nurses have a true calling to help the elderly. It really shows in the care theyr provide our residents. Mountain View Hospice believes in three pillars for their Hospice Care. According to their website, those three pillars are:- Mind – providing emotional support to the patient and family as they cope with the patient’s decline and impending death in order for them to all be coping effectively.
- Body – no longer curative treatment, but aggressively treating physical symptoms that occur as the body is shutting down, thus allowing for a comfortable end of life.
- Spirit – providing spiritual support to the patient and family which allows for spiritual peace which in turn enables the patient to pass away without distress and allows the family to have peace when their loved one passes away.
Like many of the other Hospices on this list, Mountain View will travel to wherever their patients reside. They are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Sage Hospice
5111 N Scottsdale Rd #204, Scottsdale, AZ 85250. (480) 777-5117. Sage is a Hospice that cares a lot. They send people into our homes at times to do games and other activities with our residents. It just seems like they have a culture of going above and beyond. Another sign of their care is that all their case managers are also registered nurses. The case managers make it a point to visit all their patients at least twice a week. Many other Hospice services have case managers that do one weekly visit.
The other staff will also visit homes very frequently unless asked otherwise by the family. That includes their social workers, chaplains, volunteers, and Physician Medical Directors.
Rather than me telling you about Sage, you can hear it for yourself in their informative introductory video:
To see how they would care for your family member, check out this video:
We Appreciate Our Hospice Services in Surprise and Goodyear
Hospice really makes our lives and our caregivers work environment so much better. And our families really appreciate all the services their chosen Hospice provide. Together I believe our assisted living homes and our Hospice providers make for the best care possible.
If you would like to meet some of these Hospice providers at our homes, please feel free to reach out to us through the contact form on our website(scroll down to the bottom of the page), emailus or call us at 623-295-9890 to set up a meeting.
Have you had any great experiences with Hospice services in Surprise and Goodyear? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below.
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