Best practice re: volunteer visit reports. Paper documentation from volunteer? Reports sent by e-mail? Would the latter be HIPPA compliant?
You need to be a member of Hospice Community Forum to add comments!
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."
=================
The Changing Face of Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care
HCF Creator & HVA President
Volunteers have a long history of supporting the development and delivery of hospice and palliative care in most countries throughout the world. As hospice and palliative care services anticipate significant increasing and changing demands, it is recognized that volunteers have a vital role to play in supporting the future delivery of services. However, as society changes so too does volunteering.
This multi-author text explores the complex phenomenon of hospice and palliative care volunteering from an international perspective and considers the influence on volunteering of different cultures and constructs. The book also explores the likely impact of changes in hospice and palliative care on volunteers and considers how and why volunteering itself is changing and the subsequent implications for managers, organizations, and policy makers.
This book does not attempt to offer solutions to the many challenges ahead, but rather poses questions that may help to reflect on new possibilities and opportunities.
Review
"The book is well laid out and written in an easy to use manner. It begins with setting the scene of volunteering and the modern context of hospice and palliative care. The book is well referenced and covers a range of topics making for a balanced and thought provoking read." -- Nursing Times
"If you run a palliative care volunteer service, or a palliative care service with a volunteer program, you need to read this book. Not only will it give you an in-depth view of where things are at, but also how things are changing in countries from around the world." -- Roger Woodruff, IAHPC Newsletter
Editors
Ros Scott, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Dundee, UK and Co-chair, EAPC Task Force on Volunteering in Hospice and Palliative Care. She is a researcher and voluntary sector consultant with a background in organisational development, research and the development of volunteering and of palliative care organisations.
Steven Howlett, Deputy Director at Roehampton Business School, London, UK where he teaches undergraduate and post graduate courses in management and ethics. Previously he was Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Volunteering research where he completed many studies on volunteering.
Steven Howlett, Deputy Director at Roehampton Business School, London, UK where he teaches undergraduate and post graduate courses in management and ethics. Previously he was Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Volunteering research where he completed many studies on volunteering.
Comments
Thank you! I will pass this on to our corporate office.
Sincerely,
Laynie
Hi Laynie,
You may wish to take a look at HVA's PDV service as an alternative. Volunteers these days are discouraged by pushing paper. We recently had a subscriber to our service that was acquired by a larger hospice organization and they had to revert to paper after using the PDV for 3 years. The volunteer coordinator and the volunteers were extremely unhappy. E-mail is inefficient and can violate HIPAA because even seasoned hospice workers and volunteers are not good at anonymizing emails. I personally have had experienced volunteer coordinators send emails with patient information without even realizing it...not once but several times. The PDV not only allows volunteers to reports, it has many other features that make your volunteer program easier to manage and enhance patient care.
The Patient Data Vault (PDV) is a member-exclusive service offered to HVA Member hospices. For the cost of what you would spend on postage for sending out forms to volunteers and paying the return-mail postage for their completed form, only $1.95/month per volunteer -- you get a giant leap in productivity in volunteer management and electronic reporting that is HIPAA compliant. The PDV is a volunteer information management system that provides an electronic record system for your hospice's volunteer activities. It continues to grow in functionality and our volunteer managers and volunteer subscribers love it.
The Patient Data Vault (PDV) is a secure place to electronically store and retrieve patient data over the Internet using security measures that comply with the requirements of the HIPAA Security Rule. Data that is stored in the PDV is encrypted and can only be accessed by the hospice that reposited the data. The greatest benefit of the PDV is that it permits volunteer coordinators and volunteers to efficiently communicate patient data between themselves and other hospice staff.
A brief description is below and you can click on the link in the previous paragraph to see more on our website.
The PDV was principally developed to resolve the long-standing security problem associated with sharing sensitive patient data electronically over the Internet while meeting the stringent HIPAA Security Rule. Resolving this problem with the PDV service has led to many side benefits relating to operating a more efficient volunteer program. HVA's PDV service permits the volunteer coordinator (VC) to move from a burdensome paper-based volunteer reporting system to an electronic one while enhancing communications at the same time.
Greg Schneider
HCF Creator
President, HVA
I am interested in this too. My former company allowed electronic notes for our volunteers and our volunteers LOVED them! It made my life easier as well. We merged with Compassus Hospice and no longer have that available to us. We are back to using paper and having to mail visits notes. We hope that we will soon have electronic notes at our disposal. Good luck to you!