What We Do
At Heritage Crossing, we provide all levels of palliative and hospice care.
What is hospice?
Hospice is not a place or an organization; it is a philosophy and a defining model for compassionate medical and comfort care. Hospice care is centered on a goal-focused plan of care for each individual patient in their last months of life while providing support for their families, friends and caregivers. Hospice care focuses on comfort, dignity and symptom management when cure is not possible, and provides physical, emotional and spiritual care based on the unique needs and preferences of each person.
When is the right time for hospice care?
Many families wish they had investigated hospice care earlier to benefit longer from emotional, medical, spiritual and care-giving assistance. When appropriate, the sooner hospice care is utilized, the more support we can provide. Hospice care is available to anyone who has a prognosis of 6 months or less to live. Accepting hospice care is a commitment to live every single day with the best quality of life possible. Our goal is to allow patients and their families to feel more in control of the process during end of life care. Our highly trained, professional and dedicated staff gives much needed encouragement, assistance, and relief. A compassionate guide can make the difference between hope and despair.
How does hospice help?
Our experienced multi-disciplinary care team works with physicians to provide comprehensive care that includes:
- Symptom management
- Comfort care
- On-call 24/7 medical, emotional, and spiritual support
- Medical equipment, supplies and medications related to the terminal diagnosis
- Support tailored to each patient and family needs and their wishes.
- Resources for assistance with financial and legal issues
- Assistance provided by trained volunteers
Hospice Care
Although many hospice patients have cancer as their primary diagnosis, Heritage Crossing, cares for patients of every age, while they deal with potentially life-limiting illness, including COPD, congestive heart failure, emphysema, Alzheimer’s, and dementia to name just a few.
Palliative care is right for all stages of a serious illness, which may include cancer, heart failure, dementia or major organ disease. Palliative care provided in the early stages of treatment can relieve pain and other symptoms. Other curative therapies help with:
- Relieving nausea, loss of weight, tiredness, anxiety, depression, and breathlessness
- Helping to make difficult medical decisions
- Ensuring as much comfort and physical activity as possible
- Coordinating care and treatment among doctors at all stages of illness
If you have just been diagnosed with a chronic or serious illness, you deserve the treatment that brings you peace of mind. If the illness gives you pain or difficult symptoms, or the quality of your life has been affected, Heritage Crossing, can provide compassionate care — in your home or in our care center — that relieves pain, eases unpleasant symptoms, and improves your quality of life.
We offer highly comprehensive and dignified, compassionate care. We guide families in the most difficult points in a life. We know that a sense of hopelessness or fear tends to overwhelm many families who are impacted by serious illness. Your Hospice Team will consist of:
- Physician
- Nurse
- Certified Nursing Assistant
- Medical Social Worker
- Bereavement Coordinator
- Chaplain
- Volunteer
- Complementary Therapies Practitioner
When a family experiences the real-life support that hospice care provides they are often annoyed with themselves for leaving it so long before asking for our support. Accepting a place in a hospice is a commitment to live every single day and with the best quality of life possible. Our aim is to allow patients and families to feel more in control of what happens. Our highly professional and dedicated staff gives much-needed encouragement, assistance, and relief just when a compassionate guide can make the difference between hope and despair.
Additional Programs We Offer
Faithful Paws Animal Assisted Therapy
Provides a soothing presence and the therapeutic benefits of pet therapy.
Music Therapy
Music therapy affects vital functions that we think are beyond our control. These include heart rate, blood pressure, respirations and release of body’s natural pain killing chemicals. Even when we are no longer conscious or speaking, we can console and comfort with music. The use of music enhances our lives as a means of teaching, celebrating and expressing ourselves and has been for thousands of years.
Spiritual Support
We accept spiritual life as each person’s unique experience of a power beyond himself or herself, a sense of order in the universe, a sense of purpose in living, and a sense of connection with everything. Spiritually also includes the organizing set of beliefs, values and hopes, by which each person makes sense of frequently chaotic elements of life.