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Former PVH affiliate under new auspices
(by Maggie Fazeli Fard - January 16, 2008)
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Fast facts
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- Hospice provides palliative, or comfort, care to the terminally ill. Hospice is an option for people who have a medical diagnosis that is no longer treatable and are reaching end-stage, meaning they have fewer than six months to live.
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- The first modern hospice was a grassroots facility founded in
London in 1967.
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- The hospice trend spread to by the 1980s, and in 1989 Hospice at Bergen Community Health Care, a
Pascack
Valley
Hospital affiliate, was founded. It received Medicare certification the following year.
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- In the wake of PVH’s closing last fall, Hospice at BCHC was purchased by Care Alternatives,
New Jersey ’s largest provider of hospice care. The program is now known as Bergen Hospice Team at Care Alternatives.
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While the fate of Pascack Valley Hospital remains up in the air, end-of-life care in Pascack Valley will continue uninterrupted with the recent acquisition of Hospice at Bergen Community Health Care, formerly a PVH affiliate, by Care Alternatives.
Hospice at BCHC was founded in 1989 as a specialized, anti-institutional care option for terminally ill patients and for nearly two decades offered palliative, or comfort, care across the region to people who have less than six months to live.
In November, when bankruptcy forced PVH to close its doors, several affiliate programs including Hospice at BCHC were put out to bid, and it didn’t take long before the interest of Care Alternatives, the hospice provider of more than 450 patients throughout New Jersey, was piqued. By early January, the program was re-christened Bergen County Hospice Team and is now part of the largest hospice provider in the state. But, according to Care Alternatives CEO Sam Veltri, none of the previously offered services will be lost.
“My primary concern was the continuity of hospice,” said Veltri. “There was no lapse in service.”
Veltri made it his priority to change as little as possible, incorporating the Hospice at BCHC inter-disciplinary team, consisting of a medical director, registered nurses, a social worker, a spiritual representative, certified home health caregivers and volunteers, and what he calls “Bergen flavor” into his Cranford-based organization’s existing hospice program.
“On the day it was sold, we met with the team in the morning and they went on as usual,” Veltri said. “I don’t think the patients or the families even realized there was a change. The patients see the same people.”
Also continuing is Hospice at BCHC’s successful 11th hour program, wherein volunteers remain at the bedside of patients in their last hours, and its bereavement program, which extends support to patients’ families for 13 months in the form of group meetings, regular check-ins with volunteers and an annual memorial ceremony held in November, National Hospice and Palliative Care Month.
“They have the same care as they had before,” said Veltri.
Well, almost the same care.
“We want people to know that the tradition of the
Bergen hospice team is continuing. There have been no changes in the philosophy or the clinical ability. But,” he adds, “more services can now be offered.”
The additional services incorporate Care Alternatives’ longstanding holistic take on palliative care, which involves aromatherapy, massages, Reiki and even pet therapy – “We have dogs, two goats, a pig, a mini-horse,” boasted Veltri with a chuckle. “We believe in alternative therapies.”
Another change is in the administration of the IDT. Whereas the team previously worked out of a home base in an Old Hook Road office complex, it will now conduct business in what Veltri calls a “virtual office.” Still, Veltri insisted that team members will continue to meet once a week at a location of their choosing, be it in a community center or a diner, to discuss patients in detail while staying in contact everyday by phone as patients’ conditions change. All in all, said Veltri, “the day-to-day business will be conducted in the patient’s home.”
Additionally, Care Alternatives will introduce its “Dream Catchers” program, which collects donations to fulfill patients’ final wishes, which vary from flying in family members from other states and arranging a ride in a Hummer to chartering an entire deep sea fishing vessel and flying in clam chowder from a
Boston restaurant on a regular basis. Another program funds continuing education for staff members.
“I think that it’s been a very, very successful, very, very smooth transition,” said Veltri. “The important thing is we continue that care.”
For more information, visit www.carealternatives.com or call 866-821-1212.
Maggie Fazeli Fard's e-mail address is fazelifard@northjersey.com.
| Comments (1) |
On January 18, 2008 Maryanne said:
This article seems to state that this company has all the same staff to my knowledge the Medical Director and several key adminstrators did not take positions with this company. I would also like to know if this hospice is non profit like BCHC? As a member of this communtiy it is extremely distressing to think that my case would be discussed at a diner where is HIPPA? Thank you in advance for any reply you can give me. VERY CONCERNED Resident. |
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