New challenges have also cropped up for providing in-home care, which is how most rural folks receive hospice. Additionally, 24/7 visiting hours have been slashed to just two brief visiting periods per day. Patients and staff now go through daily temperature checks and risk-exposure screenings. The new requirements for personal protective equipment, sanitizing, and social distancing meant that the facility had to temporarily reduce capacity from 12 to seven beds.
Following suit with nursing homes and other assisted-living facilities, many hospice homes drastically changed their visitation policies and attempted to reduce nonessential staff-patient interaction during the pandemic.īraunsteiner’s facility, Carolina Caring, is one organization dealing with these changes.Ĭarolina Caring operates the only hospice house in the area, serving two rural counties plus rural parts of counties that are officially part of a metropolitan area. In turn, their vulnerability threatens medical staff, families, and volunteers. These include lower patient volume, higher costs associated with travel, limited broadband access, and lower retention rate among hospital staff.ĭue to the high average age and poor overall health of patients in hospice care facilities, these populations are especially susceptible to coronavirus. Even before the pandemic, rural programs struggled with financial, regulatory, workforce, and technology issues. The pandemic is forcing hospice staff, patients, and their families to change their behavior at an already difficult time.
“When you think about a nurse and a doctor coming up to you, and you’re feeling sick and confused and in a different place and they’ve got the whole bottom of their face covered and they’ve got gloves and goggles on… it’s like, ‘who is this astronaut coming towards me?’ It’s hard for patients.” But many are “just freaked out about it,” she said. Melissa Braunsteiner, a physician at a hospice organization in Catawba County, North Carolina. Some patients are fine when once-familiar faces are hidden behind goggles and masks, says Dr.
So when the pandemic forced hospice medical staff to don head-to-toe protective gear, the adjustment was more difficult than just a change in uniform. Providing emotional support and human connection for patients nearing the end of their lives is a major tenet of hospice care.