Center for Hospice Care (CHC) – a not-for-profit, community-based organization is pleased to announce the success of their independently created specialty programs, ‘HeartWize’ and ‘BreatheEazy.’
In 2016, Center for Hospice Care developed and implemented these innovative programs to help meet the needs of their patients. HeartWize for individuals living with advanced heart disease and BreatheEazy for individuals living with COPD and other lung diseases. Each program addresses the unique needs of patients affected by these diseases, such as, optimal nutrition while living with certain diseases, disease education for everyone that is customized, symptom management and medication management. End stage heart disease and lung disease have comprised almost half of the diagnoses of all CHC patients. Both programs include the use of emotional, spiritual, and complementary approaches to care, as appropriate.
Center for Hospice Care’s HeartWize program for patients with advanced heart disease has shown tremendous results in reducing both emergency room visits and hospital readmissions. This specialty program takes an interdisciplinary approach and includes the use of emotional and spiritual support for both patient and family. Specialized protocols and treatment pathways are designed for each patient. Over the past four years, CHC cared for 3,281 patients who also participated in the HeartWize program, which is an option for optimal care management. In 2016-2020, the program had a 99.6% effective rate of keeping patients from visiting the emergency room and a 99.2% rate of reducing hospitalization readmission.
Center for Hospice Care’s BreatheEazy program for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has shown tremendous results in reducing both emergency room visits and hospital readmissions. Over the past four years, CHC cared for 2,461 patients who also participated in the BreatheEazy program. In 2016-2020, the program had a 99.5% effective rate of keeping patients from visiting the emergency room and 97.7% rate of reducing hospitalization readmission.
Center for Hospice Care is a community based, not-for-profit organization, improving the quality of living through hospice, home health, grief counseling, and community education. Put simply, our mission is “to improve the quality of living” for those in our community through our support of Center for Hospice Care, an organization that helps patients and their loved ones experience the best possible quality of living even as they face end of life.