Hospice Care at Sarah House
Sarah House is a “social model” hospice rather than a standard “medical model”. Most facilities attempt to integrate both social and medical components in their care; what makes us unique is our angle of approach. We provide medical care in a social environment, rather than social care in a medical environment. An example of this distinction would be the difference between a doctor visiting you in your home and your family visiting you in the hospital. Our approach is groundbreaking in hospice care, a model that until now was only alive in the pages of progressive hospice books and the hopeful minds of many hospice caregivers.
We designed Sarah House to be the next best thing to home. We welcome residents as friends and give them unconditional love as family. Our volunteers cook their favorite foods. Their own friends and relatives join them for countless meals at our dining room table. When they want a favorite movie, we put them in the van and drive to the video store. When we have summer barbeques, the residents who are able decorate cupcakes and welcome the guests. Nothing about this has a clinical look, although complicated medical procedures are followed precisely. What this does look like is spending one’s last days with home and family.
We integrate high-quality medical care into this environment. We provide 24-hour Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) care, Registered Nurse case management, and each patient is assigned a visiting Registered Nurse from the local Medicare certified hospice agency. This same agency, Visiting Nurse Association, also provides formal grief counseling and support to residents and their families. We have a doctor who visits residents in the comfort of their own rooms.