At Salute Hospice, our entire team is committed to keeping our patient and their family as comfortable and cared for as possible during the final days, weeks, or months of the patient’s life. It is important to incorporate the patient’s thoughts, wishes, values, and beliefs as well as include the presence of family members and loved ones since, oftentimes, it is not just the patient themselves who is going through the final stages of the patient’s life. Their loved ones are also staying by the patient’s side and accompanying them until the end of their journey.
During our initial consultation, various aspects of our patient’s well-being will be addressed. Salute Hospice’s care and pain management approach promotes open communication and discussions about the situation as a whole which includes, but is not limited to, the disease prognosis, process, and what the patient and family can expect. Our agency is made up of doctors, nurses, home health aides, social workers, and spiritual counselors. We provide all medications accessible from our pharmacy, medical visits, nursing visits, all medical and incontinent supplies and all durable medical equipment such as hospital beds, oxygen concentrators, wheelchairs, walkers, and more.
I have always been drawn to the comfort first and dignity preservation philosophies of hospice care, so whenever I had a patient who was in hospice care, I would ask them or their family a lot of questions to learn what I could about their experiences. I began to recognize that many families, although they were ultimately happy that their family member chose hospice, could have had an even better experience. The overwhelmingly biggest frustration with the families that I spoke to was accessibility and/or responsiveness of the hospice agency they chose. Others voiced frustrations with one of the nurses or staff members or felt there was not enough assistance in planning for their loved ones passing.
Subsequently, my wife and I went through the hospice experience with my own father when he passed. I saw first-hand how a proud man could pass with dignity and self-respect around his family and loved ones, while being kept comfortable throughout the process. That experience ultimately convinced us that hospice and comfort care was our calling and that calling resulted in Salute Hospice. At Salute Hospice, our team consists only of people who feel that same passion for the philosophy and care that hospice is built around. We are committed to being the most responsive and compassionate agency offering services in Southern California and we will always work towards achieving that goal!
