When you’re choosing a hospice, you want to make sure you’re placing your loved one in safe and caring hands.
While there are several factors that should go into deciding on the best hospice for your loved one, safety is virtually universal. Every hospice must be accredited. In fact, it’s illegal to operate a hospice that is not accredited. The purpose of accreditation shows that the hospice has legally met all the guidelines set forth by Medicare—it’s a quality assurance that services are going to be able to be covered through a patient’s Medicare benefits.
Ardent Hospice & Palliative Care is accredited through the Community Health Accreditation Program (CHAP), a national accrediting body for community-based home care. Having that accreditation means that we’ve passed the standards and meet the requirements to operate our hospice care services safely and satisfactorily.
The Requirements for Becoming Accredited
In order to gain accreditation as a hospice, we have to meet the criteria of the governing body—in this case CHAP. To do that, our entire team must go through extensive training, and we are tested and surveyed tri-annually by the state, not including random surveys or inspections. Medicare and CHAP have set guidelines and criteria we must meet to keep our accreditation. Examples of these criteria are establishing a volunteer program and having a registered nurse visit patients at minimum every 14 days.
The standards for hospice are extremely high. Because Ardent meets those standards, our patients and their families can have confidence knowing we are a trusted and reliable agency.
Ardent Goes Above & Beyond Accreditations
While accreditations help us perform at the highest level, we believe it’s our responsibility to go above and beyond the general standards. We strive to make sure we don’t just meet expectations, but exceed them.
For instance, instead of just establishing a volunteer program as required, we take it a step further and do extensive training with our volunteers. We also keep an open line of communication with the families we work with, and everyone on our team—from nurses, to volunteers, to our medical director—is involved with the communication. Everyone on our team is always knowledgeable and readily available to discuss the patient’s condition and care, in case the family has questions or concerns at any point in time.
It’s also important to us that we’re not just delivering care, but that we’re providing the patient with a higher quality of life in their final days. We don’t just visit patients to meet the standards, we make an effort to make them feel special and loved. For example, we like to celebrate our patients’ birthdays. We also work with the No One Should Die Alone Foundation to make the life-long wishes of our patients come true.
Accreditations are essential, but at Ardent Hospice & Palliative Care we believe in going above and beyond the basic accreditation standards. We take the responsibility of being their care provider during their final days very seriously. Ultimately, it’s our goal to become a part of each patient’s family and give them unending support during their difficult time. To find out more information about the ways Ardent can provide that kind of care and comfort for your loved one, visit our website or call our main office in San Diego at (858) 952-1786.
Share +