BEACON HOSPICE, AN AMYEDISYS COMPANY

Last Friday Pegg came over to talk to us about hospice care for my mother and my mother agreed. During this process I asked how quick the response time would be if we called the nursing line and Pegg said it’s just a matter of the distance of where the nurses are a to where we live, so Minutes not hours. On Sunday we had to make the first call to the nursing line. The triage nurse took our issue and passed it to the on call nurse. The on call nurse called us back and said “ I have 5 patients I won’t be able to get to you tonight”. Never came. A few days later we had to call the nursing line again, triage nurse passed the information on to the on call nurse. The nurse calls, same one as the other night, says “I can come to you or just tell you what to do over the phone” I said just tell me because I don’t get the feeling you want to come and I don’t want to wait hours if it’s something I can do for her now”. Everyday a nurse did come. They would check her vitals, say we’re doing a great job and leave. Probably there a total of 10-15 mins. Right before she passed at about 10pm we called the nurse line and the on call nurse came right out and was a blessing in disguise. She helped change my mother’s undergarments, which none of the other nurses did or even offer to do. She also repositioned my mother who had been in the same position for 2 days (we didn’t reposition her because we weren’t educated enough to know and thought it was common for her to stay in the same position) none of the other nurses offered to do that. They told us on Monday that a comfort kit was coming to the house (a package of medicine with morphine) and would be there by 8pm on Monday. We didn’t get this kit till Thursday, 3 days after the fact. After everything was said and done I realized how little they did and how they barely kept their word. The social worker was great however he didn’t come out to a week later and one day before my mom pass. There were a few staff that are angels. I in good faith could not recommend this company to anyone.

Unfortunately hospice was not a pleasant experience for my family. The people who came out were very nice especially Sharon. However I feel that hospice was not staffed to provide services. Also we were pushed to bring him home from the hospital when hospice said, not when we were ready. No one from social services ever contacted us and there was no follow up after my Brother died. My Brother suffered through the last five days of his life.

Beacon Hospice care really helped our Dad and us these last few months. The nurses were excellent, professional and caring. Always helpful with our phone calls. Dad especially loved JoJo his health aid. So very thankful for their care.

Beacon Staff: I just lost Theresa, my wife of 72 years, following a difficult struggle. During this period a dozen Beacon staff professions worked with us, and at every step, and every critical moment they were there for us, always there, always anticipating our every need and question. Their professionalism, compassion, and sensitivity to every emotion we were experiencing was simply always perfect. Every Beacon staff member was simply outstanding, and they provided us with the confidence, strength and emotional support to handle our situation in a way we never would have been able to do without them. We can not thank everyone enough, and our gratitude can not be fully expressed in words. I can only say “Thank You” from the bottom of my heart as you helped us focus on every possible positive emotion at a time that we needed this support. Sincerely, Charles Hill

I'm giving 3 stars because our RN was not great. She missed shifts. Never told us what hospice covered. What little she did order took forever to come in. My grams last day she called to see how she was. We explained that she was declining quickly and was resting. Her response was "so you don't need me to come in? I'd hate to bother her". Which sounds like she's being helpful when truthfully she's trying to skip her patient. When she came in she barely checked her. Gram passed that night. The night RN (Cody) which we met before deserves the 5 stars. He was the imagine of a hospice nurse. Very caring. Took time with the family. when our complaint was brought to Beacon they responded immediately and said they would take care of it. No other family will have to struggle with supplies and missed shifts. I'm very impressed they took our complaint seriously.