Hospice of Michigan, which provides end-of-life care for more than 1,400 patients each day, is expanding its advanced illness management program into Ohio after signing its first partnership agreement with an out-of-state provider.
The partnership will allow Ohio-based Western Reserve At Home Support, a unit of Hospice of the Western Reserve, to provide its support program for patients with cancer, heart disease, ALS, Parkinson’s, and other chronic illnesses. It provides services including at-home nursing visits, a patient-family advocate, and personalized care provided by aides and volunteers.
“We see tremendous — and growing — need for programs like At Home Support, which provides care for families coping with a life-altering illness,” says Robert Cahill, president and CEO of Hospice of Michigan. “We have clinically demonstrated that At Home Support reduces the burden on family caregivers while reducing costs and improving quality of life.
A three-year study of the At Home Support pilot program, which launched in 2009, found the hospice service reduces care cost by as much as $3,400 per month, or about 36 percent of total costs, by decreasing hospitalizations, re-hospitalizations, and ER utilization, Cahill says.
“Through this innovative partnership program, we are excited to be at the forefront in delivering an improved quality of life to thousands of individuals who are living daily with chronic, debilitating diseases in the Northeast Ohio community,” says Michele Seyranian, of the Western Reserve.
Cahill says Hospice of Michigan is in talks with several other organizations about launching the support program throughout the United States.
