By Dr. Stephanie Patel
November is National Hospice Palliative Care Month, a time to raise awareness about the specialized care that hospice and palliative care provide to patients and their families. Both focus on the patient’s needs, expert care, comfort, and quality of life.
Did you know that hospice isn’t just for the final days of life? As former President Jimmy Carter has shown us, hospice can provide many months of comfort and support, helping patients and families navigate the end stages of illness with dignity and care.
Hospice also supports families and caregivers, providing counseling, respite care, and resources to help them during this challenging time when a cure may no longer be possible. Palliative care focuses on relieving symptoms and stress of serious illness, can be provided at any age and any stage of the illness, and is available while receiving curative treatment.
Since 1978, Care Dimensions has been a driving force in expanding access to serious illness care through hospice and palliative care. As the largest hospice in Massachusetts, Care Dimensions provides care for patients wherever they call “home”—private residences, assisted living facilities, nursing homes, hospitals, group homes, and our hospice houses in Danvers and Lincoln.
If you or your loved one is facing a serious illness, do not hesitate to find out how hospice or palliative care can help. The sooner you get the care you need, the sooner you can benefit from an improved quality of life.
Patel is president and CEO of Care Dimensions.
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Palliative and hospice care are hugely valued and beneficial. By all accounts, Care Dimensions provides best in class services. It’s worth noting that since opening in 2018, the Care Dimensions hospice facility has imposed a large financial burden on the town and taxpayers of Lincoln. Preparing death certificates is a surprisingly complex and costly process. Per the 2019 town report:
“The registration of a death record involves state and local government, medical staff, funeral homes, and, in some situations, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. It is a multiuser system that requires input from medical certifiers, decedent’s family, and funeral homes if involved. The increase in registering death records has impacted this office in the urgency and responsiveness required. Additionally, the increase in deaths occurring in Lincoln has increased the number of certified copies issued by this office.”
When Care Dimensions was applying to have their land rezoned from residential to business, I recall their proposing 12 beds with an anticipated average patient stay of 8 days. That would equal 548 deaths per year, each one requiring a carefully and accurately recorded death certificate.
This tracks with the actual numbers. In 2019 (Care Dimensions’ first full year of operation and the only year for which complete data is broken out), the hospice facility represented 531 out of the 601 total deaths recorded in Lincoln, or over 88%. The increased clerical workload has forced the town to hire additional staff.
Care Dimensions doesn’t contribute any tax revenue to the town, as is consistent with a 501(c)(3) entity. But I can think of no other nonprofit that imposes such a unique and substantial expense on this or any municipality. If Dr. Patel and Care Dimensions want to be good corporate neighbors, they should cover the cost of recording deaths at their facility.