A Hospice Waiting List?

BK Books

I just read an article that due to the nursing shortage many hospices are unable to accept new referrals and are putting people on a waiting list. Really? A waiting list? I appreciate if there isn’t staff, then there isn’t staff, but a waiting list seems incongruous with end of life. Particularly since most people wait until a person is literally on death’s door before reaching out to hospice.

What to do, you ask? Here are some of my thoughts:

Give written literature as to signs of approaching death and what to do as it approaches for the family. Yes, give Gone From My Sight and The Eleventh Hour as a “I’m sorry we can’t bring you on service right now but these will help you” gift. Giving these learning tools is at least not leaving these families unguided (it's also good PR).

Offer a one-time meeting with the hospice social worker to offer guidance in community resources and support. Write it off as part of your community service, even marketing. The family will either remember you as a hospice that had no room in the inn or a hospice that offered guidance even though there was no room.

Can you discharge some of the patients with dementia that are not declining, that are probably many months from death, to accept those patients who are closer to death?

As during the lockdown times of covid when you used the telephone more as your means of contact, begin using the phone for visit assessments. Have a nurse in the office make calls to patient’s families, touching base when nurses are in short supply…

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