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CAREGIVERS STORE
Surviving Hospice: A Chaplain's Journey into the Big Business of Dying Plus: How To Find a Trustworthy Hospice
This narrative is an insider’s look into the hijacking of hospice by private equity and professional investors and the subsequent harm to patients, their families, and to the interdisciplinary clinical teams. It was released by a NYC publisher on October 31, 2023. For sale on Amazon.
The author, a hospice chaplain, tells end-of-life stories of her patients who were harmed by financially-motivated policies. This is a book for anyone who is embarking on making a choice about a hospice for their loved one, working chaplains, those in training, and those interested in what dying is like with a hospice who places patients as their primary stakeholders.
Maryclaire's experience working for an owner who sold to a private equity firm helped her to realize that the reputation and viability of hospice is in jeopardy. Her goal is to alert all who love hospice to rid it of professional investors.
— Stacy Juba, author, editor, and award-winning health journalist
"Powerful, beautifully written, and eye-opening, this book spotlights the inner workings of a multi-billion-dollar industry and the effect on patients, families, and hospice staff. The author shares poignant accounts of hospice at its best and worst and the hard-hitting truths she learned on her journey. A must-read for family members exploring hospice care."
— Laura Kukowski, CEO, editor, For-Profit Badger Hospice, LLC
"Maryclaire Torinus speaks with authority, providing this essential handbook for choosing a hospice care team and why that selection really matters."
— Greg Schneider President, HVA, co-author of The Changing Face of Hospice Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care
"When I first found out that Maryclaire Torinus was writing this book, I immediately contacted her because in my 25+ years supporting hospice volunteers, I have seen a gradual decline in the quality of care volunteers are permitted to provide the dying and their families. There are a variety of reasons for this that I describe in the Foreward of this book. Maryclaire provides invaluable insights that everyone should know, along with solutions to help others make the right choice in choosing a hospice."
Replies
Please explain this more to me-how it is utilized for volunteer recruitment and retainment.
Jennifer Thompson, CVA
I would suggest making the following considerations when asking yourself whether some activity meets the 5% requirement (this information can be found in the Federal Register, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), 42 CFR Part 418 dated June 5, 2008) :
If a hospice is training and orienting volunteers, it is most likely using its paid employees to do so. Therefore, no cost savings is achieved. However, if a hospice does pay an employee for time spent traveling for direct patient care and administrative purposes, and does not compensate a volunteer for the time, then it may include the volunteer’s travel time, direct patient care and administrative services in its documentation of the cost savings it achieves. Likewise, hospices may document the time that volunteers actually spend providing direct patient care and administrative services, because hospices would compensate paid employees for the time spent performing these duties. Medicare regulations also note that while travel time is not the same as direct patient care, it can be included if employees are compensated for such as mentioned above.
With regard to volunteer time spent in training or attendance in support meetings, consider the following opinion made in the HHS the above referenced Federal Register document:
"We understand that traveling, providing care or services, documenting information, and calling patients all consume volunteer time, and we agree that the time may be used in calculating the level of volunteer activity in a hospice. If a hospice chooses to include any of these areas that are directly related to providing direct patient care or administrative services in its percentage calculation of volunteer hours, it must ensure that the time spent by its paid employees and contractors for the same activity is also included in the calculation. That is, if a hospice chooses to count the hours spent by volunteers traveling to and from patient homes in its calculation of the numerator, it must count the hours spent by its paid employees and contractors in traveling to and from patient homes in its calculation of the denominator. In this way, hospices will be able to accurately assess the proportion of volunteer hours to paid staff and contractor hours."
In summary, the questions to ask yourself are?
Hope that is helpful.
Greg Schneider
HCF Creator
President, HVA
And she is going to find out about group meetings, if they count or not also.
Have a good New Year too.
Here are a few ideas I have: Although craft hours do not count, you can have some gifts made by a group of kids (we have a key club make cards), then ask a few volunteers to take these gifts/cards around to several nearby nursing homes to present them to hospice patients. That will add a few hours on to your total.
You can do this quarterly, and the patients and volunteers get to know each other also.
Also, if you can get volunteers in for a support group meeting quarterly or monthly, that is counted as hours too. (And education hours).
Anything you have volutunteers do live is counted as time. Right?
Let me know if this helps- and what others' suggest.
Have a good New Year!