Hospice Dallas| IMPORTANCE OF FOLLOW-UP PROCEDURES IN HOSPICE CARE

Following up with patients and their families during or after a service is given is a useful method in creating a more productive system. The most important part of a follow-up procedure is checking any complaints that the patient and their family may  have concerning the hospice’s delivery of services. This will ensure that the patient’s personal care plan is being followed strictly and that there are no misunderstandings or miscommunication s. Maintaining a strong and trustworthy relationship with the patient and their family is an essential part of creating a reliable reputation as a facility.

Hospice deficiencies could arise as a result of a home visit or a clinical record review. If and when a hospice deficiency is identified, they must be recorded on the form CMS-2567. These deficiencies could include, but are not limited to:

• Failure to promote and protect the patient’s rights

• Failure to accurately conduct a patient-specific comprehensive assessment that identifies the patient/family’s need for hospice care and services, and the patient/family’s need for physical, psycho-social, emotional, and spiritual care

• Failure to develop and implement a plan of care that meets the needs identified in the initial or comprehensive assessment

• Failure of the IDG to meet the physical, medical, psycho-social, emotional, and spiritual needs of the hospice patient/family

• Failure to provide all covered services, as necessary, including the continuous home care level of care, respite care and short-term inpatient care

• Failure to provide nursing and physician services, drugs and treatments on a 24 hour basis

• Failure to retain professional management responsibility for all hospice services provided under contract to patients

• Failure to develop, implement, and maintain an effective, ongoing, hospice-wide data-driven QAPI program.

To avoid such deficiencies and complications, it’s important to take a step back and to pay careful attention to every patient, their family, and their individual needs. Following up with a patient and their family emphasizes the respect and strong communication that every hospice should have with their patients, and it also prevents the likelihood of mistakes and mishaps. 

Hospice Dallas

How you determine if the Hospice care is good!

If someone in family or friends is utilizing hospice care, how we can determine if it is good. Following are attributes of services which help us decide if hospice care is good or not.

1.       Promotion and protection of residents right: This means if Hospice have a set procedure to educate all employees, patients and family members about the patient rights who needs hospice care.

2.       The hospice interdisciplinary group should gather information from patient and family members to evaluate and modify plan of care to the changing needs of the hospice patient.

3.       Educating patient, family members and friends of patient who are involved in patient care helps significantly the quality of hospice care.

4.       Qualified personals (Doctors, Nurses, Nurse aids, Social workers, Chaplin and management staff) are among the most important factors to deliver quality hospice care.

5.       Attitude of staff for quality hospice care should include compassion, love and empathy.

6.       Patient engagement in various activities (mental, spiritual, social, recreational and creative) also improve the quality of care.

7.       Hospice should provide care maintaining all acceptable standards of care at all professional levels.

8.       Hospice should have a comprehensive infection control program to protect patient, family members, employees and visitors.

9.       The data driven quality assurance program is critical for the quality hospice care. This program should be able to identify any deficiencies, errors and measure the level of quality of care. Analysis of quality assurance help modifying strategies and the process to deliver best care.

10.   Employees performance measurement, on job training, employees training for hospice policies and procedures and continuing education are practices which help hospice to gain excellence.

Ameriprime  Hospice is the hospice care provider which is maintaining all of the above standards to deliver the best hospice care in Dallas, Plano, Richardson, Carrollton, Denton, Fort worth and many other cities of the Dallas Fort worth.