$1.9M in expenses

Hospice of crawford county, INC., provides hospice services to its patients. Hospice is all about living - living to the utmost until it is time to say farewell. Hospice is designed to help people who are nearing the end of life's journey to live as fully as possible at home, in familiar surroundings, close to family and friends. Attention to the needs of the whole person, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, is the focus of hospice care. That care is provided by interdisciplinary groups of concerned people who include physicians, nurses, social workers, spiritual counselors and volunteers. Anyone can call for hospice information and care. Any resident of crawford county or contiguous areas surrounding counties who has been diagnosed as having a limited life expectancy is eligible for hospice services. The patient must be under the care of a physician who authorizes the ongoing plan of care and works in affiliation with the interdisciplinary hospice group of caregivers. There must be at least one individual in the household willing to help provide care and assistance to the patient. Hospice care is reimbursed through a variety of payment sources including medicare, pennsylvania medical assistance and private insurances. Hospice of crawford county also serves nursing home residents who meet the hospice admissions criteria. Hospice of crawford county, INC., is a nonprofit organization affiliated with community health services of crawford county, INC., and the united way, and is a medicare and medicaid certified agency and a member of the pennsylvania hospice network and national hospice organization. Hospice recognizes dying as a normal process of life. Hospice is a positive support system for those in the last stages of terminal illness and their families. Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death, rather, it promotes the concept of comfort, dignity and respect for all persons until the moment of death. Hospice believes that the person who is dying has the right to the highest possible quality of life consistent with the individual's lifestyle and value system. This quality of life can be achieved through a continuous, comprehensive, multidisciplinary health care program which encompasses the total need of the person - physical, emotional, spiritual, and social - and which promotes attainment of maximum life quality. Hospice of crawford county is a medically directed program for residents of crawford county and contiguous areas designed to assist people with a limited life expectancy to remain in their own homes. These services include medical care, skilled nursing, medical social work, pastoral and other counseling, home health aide and/or homemakers and trained hospice volunteers. The hospice concept of care relies on the belief that each patient needs individualized quality care, hence the need for systematic planning of care to specific requirements. Planning and delivery of services will be carried out with a team approach. An interdisciplinary core group of professionals including a physician, a registered nurse, a medical social worker and a pastoral or spiritual counselor serve to address these needs, calling upon other services, therapies, volunteers and disciplines as appropriate. The interdisciplinary group will oversee four levels of patient care, which include routine home care, continuous home care, inpatient care and inpatient respite care. The hospice concept is, however, predominantly a home health care program of services. Emphasis is given to educating the patient and family about the illness, its symptoms and treatment, pain control and the grieving process. Hospice care encompasses the entire family unit as well as the patient and is primarily oriented to care being provided in the home environment. The overall goal of hospice is to help enhance the quality of life and the individual's dignity and control of his or her care as much as humanly possible in the final months and days of life. Special attention is given to pain management, direct skilled nursing care, counseling, instruction and other support which can include relieving the family of care giving responsibilities for short periods of time, occasional inpatient care for respite or pain and symptom management and bereavement (grief) counseling. Hospice volunteers are recruited and trained by hospice of crawford county and are carefully selected, instructed and supervised. They offer friendship and support in the home. Volunteers may remain in contact with the family long after death has occurred. Volunteers also may elect to perform other types of needed services for the hospice organization such as clerical, community education or fund raising. All hospice volunteers are an integral part of the caring team.

$104K in expenses

The marquette hospice house is located in a rural scenic area north of meadville. It provides support for up to three hospice patients at a time who do not have adequate support at home for independent living. Hospice nurses continue to make regular visits to provide care in the hospice house but the facility is also staffed 24 x 7 by a licensed practical nurse who can provide assistance with medications, meals and other activities of daily living. The facility features indoor and outdoor places for friends, family members and others to visit with the hospice patients. In essence, the marquette hospice house becomes their 'home away from home' when living alone is not practical or the patient lacks the support of friends, spouses or family to remain in their own homes during the remaining months of a terminal illness.