For immediate release from: Oaklawn Hospital
Contact Person: Dan Stulberg, Marketing & PR Director (269.789.3934)
Date: 7/22/09 Words: 469
Oaklawn Hospital announces new Hospice Program
Oaklawn Hospital is pleased to announce the debut of Oaklawn Hospice following a successful accreditation survey by Joint Commission. “Oaklawn takes great pride in the compassionate care that we provide,” said President and CEO Rob Covert. “This program will allow us to be there for our patients and their families in their greatest hour of need. We are very pleased to be able to add this important element to the care we provide.”
The program is under the direction of Donna Young who has served as director of Oaklawn’s Homecare Health Services for many years. She explained Oaklawn’s decision to provide a hospice program. “In our work with Homecare Health Services we see a lot of patients who are in the twilight of their lives,” remarked Young. “We’re very proud of the high level of care we provide and it just didn’t feel right passing them off to another provider’s hospice program when the end was near. Now we’ll be able to fulfill all of their needs.”
Hospice offers a comprehensive program of care to patients and families who are facing a terminal illness. Patients determine with their family and physician whether they’d like to begin hospice care. Hospice emphasizes comforting, rather than curative treatment.
Compassionate physicians and nurses, who are trained in symptom and pain relief, provide professional medical care. Hospice affirms life and regards dying as a normal process. It neither hastens nor postpones death, and it accepts anyone regardless of age, type of illness, and whether or not they’re insured.
A team of skilled Oaklawn caregivers will work with the patient’s physician, including a nurse, social worker, counselor, therapist, home health aides, clergy, and trained volunteers. Assisting Young with the administration of the program are clinical coordinator Beth Briscoe and social services director Pam MacQuaig. Briscoe joins Oaklawn’s staff after serving as a case manager and clinical supervisor for nine years with a Coldwater hospice program, while MacQuaig served eight years with hospice in Petoskey before moving to Marshall with her family last summer.
Expenses are paid through Medicare, insurance, and community fundraising. Because Hospice guidelines require the program to accept all qualifying patients, it is important that the program conduct community outreach efforts to help pay for services that Medicare or insurances don’t fully cover. Community fundraising comes in the form of memorial contributions, foundation and local gifting, and typically an annual fundraiser.
As the hospice social services director, MacQuaig has already held several training sessions for volunteers who wish to assist with patient care or office and administrative duties. Anyone who is interested in learning more about Oaklawn Hospice services should call (269) 789-3939. “I am very excited,” said Director Young, “about the exceptional quality of care that our hospice program is now providing for the families in the Calhoun County and surrounding areas.”