Hospice Team

Primary Hospice Team
Supplementary Clinicians
Consulting Clinicians
Bereavement Counseling

The hospice team works with the patient and his or her family to develop a personalized care plan. The hospice staff is specially trained to provide medical assistance and to deal with the loneliness and fears experienced by both the patient and his or her loved ones. Hospice staff respect patient wishes and help foster communication amongst family members. Patients and families who choose hospice are the core of the hospice team and are at the center of all decision making.

The primary hospice team consists of physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, home health aides, and volunteers. Supplementary clinicians may be assigned later to help meet special needs, like the massage therapist or art therapist. Consulting clinicians include the pharmacist, dietician. Also, bereavement services are offered to families after their loved one has died.

InterDisciplinary Group (IDG)
Each week the entire team — primary care, supplementary clinicians, and consulting clinicians — meets to review the family's plan of care for quality of life and pain control. This meeting is called the InterDisciplinary Group (IDG).

Physician
The patient usually retains his/her primary care physician. He/she may be assigned a secondary care physician while in hospice, e.g., an oncologist. In addition, all hospice plans of care are under the review of the hospice Medical Director.

Primary Hospice Team

The following clinicians provide direct care on site to patients throughout out the week.

Case Mangers
Each hospice patient has a primary nurse, or Case Manager, who coordinates the medical aspects of care. In addition, nursing care is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Social Workers
Social workers coordinate the psycho-social needs of each patient and their families, working with them on a variety of issues to access resources in the community. These issues might include financial considerations as well as other issues that may surface during the loss of a loved one or through grief and bereavement. They help families with important decision regarding Advance Directives, Durable Power of Attorney for healthcare decisions, and DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) forms.

Chaplains
Kaiser Permanente East Bay uses ordained clergy to help address spiritual concerns of patients and family members that might or might not take their place within the context of formal religion. Every effort is made to provide care appropriate to each patient's individual belief system, as well as to address concerns of a more generalized spiritual nature.

Home Health Aide
Provides personal care assistance for patients, for example, bathing, meal preparation, etc.

Volunteers
Trained volunteers are an integral part of hospice service. Nationally, 100,000 people volunteer annually, providing five million hours of care and service. Volunteers provide a wide range of services, both in patient care as well as in administrative and other support areas. Click here to find a place for you as a Kaiser Permanente Hospice volunteer.

Supplementary Clinicians

The following clinicians also collaborate with the Interdisciplinary Group to monitor the plan of care. They may also provide direct care on site as needed.

Art Therapist
Art therapy is a surprisingly powerful tool for enhancing the quality of life for patients who are terminally ill, allowing them to regain a sense of control over their lives, and sometimes providing insight and access to hidden emotions.

Massage Therapist
Massage can assuage loneliness and lower pain levels. It can relieve the edema, which often accompanies the process of dying. Touch is the first sense we develop, in the womb, before birth. And touch is the last sense lost.

Consulting Clinicians

The following clinicians also meet with the Interdisciplinary Group weekly to monitor the plan of care.

Psychological Services
We do make referrals to psychologists through Behavioral Health as needed.

Pharmacist
Assists the hospice team in providing the most effective medication-dose, method, frequency, administration-to provide comfort care.

Dietician
Consults in the appropriate dietary management of hospice patients as needed.

Bereavement Counseling

Bereavement calls and counseling, both individual and group, are available to loved ones for a year after the patient's death.