Southcoast Health Visiting Nurse Association’s Supportive Care Services earns 4-star rating for Hospice

FALL RIVER/NEW BEDFORD/FAIRHAVEN – Presented on Medicare’s updated Care Compare platform, Hospice Care from Southcoast Health’s Visiting Nurse Association earned a 4-star Family Caregiver Survey Rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, officials announced.

“The 4-star Hospice Family Caregiver Survey rating demonstrates the Supportive Care Center’s commitment to providing the highest quality care and making a positive impact on the lives of patients we care for and their families as they navigate this difficult time,” says Patricia Buiocchi, Senior Vice President of Post-Acute Services for Southcoast Health’s Visiting Nurse Association (VNA).

Hospice is a specialized kind of care that offers comfort and support to patients who are no longer seeking active treatment, and instead are just managing chronic conditions. This form of supportive care works to improve the quality of life, provide pain relief and comfort measures for terminally ill patients.

All Star Ratings are based on results from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Hospice survey, created by CMS to help patients compare and select a hospice program. They were publicly reported for the first time in August 2022 for all hospices with 75 or more completed surveys from Quarter 2 2019 – Quarter 4 2019 and Quarter 3 2020 – Quarter 3 2021.

The survey consists of 47 questions assessing eight quality measures, including communication with family, getting timely help, treating patients with respect, emotional and spiritual support, help for pain and symptoms, training family to care for patients and willingness to recommend the hospice to others.

It is administered to the primary informal caregiver or descendant of a patient who died while receiving hospice care. Of hospices ranked, 39 percent earned a 4-star ranking with only 10 percent earning five stars. CMS will continue to display overall Hospice CAHPS star ratings on the public reporting platform, care compare. Star Ratings will be updated every other quarter, taking into account eight rolling quarters of data.

Southcoast Health VNA’s Supportive Care Center consists of an expert team of physicians, nurse practitioners, certified hospice nurses, social workers, chaplains, bereavement counselors, home health aides, and specially trained volunteers.

At home and in inpatient settings, these providers care for patients with all kinds of life-limiting diseases such as cancer, dementia, diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, heart, lung, or kidney disease and more.

To learn more about Southcoast Health’s hospice services call (800) 698-6877 to schedule a consultation.