Suncoast Hospice and its Affilates Continue Commitment to Transparency and Accountability with Guidestar

Suncoast Hospice is proud to be designated a GuideStar Exchange Gold Participant for our transparency. Our affiliates, Suncoast Hospice Foundation, AIDS Service Association of Pinellas, Inc. (ASAP) and Project GRACE also have this designation.

GuideStar is a national program that encourages transparency with nonprofits. The gold logo is the highest distinction in GuideStar’s system and indicates that an agency has provided up-to-date, comprehensive, accurate information about its mission, leadership, financials and the impact of its programs.  

“We partner with the community to design and provide services needed. We’re so pleased to have this platform for communicating our progress,” said Rafael Sciullo, Suncoast Hospice president and CEO.

Kim Stangle, Suncoast Hospice Foundation executive director, added, “Our donors need to have complete confidence that their contributions are being used to carry out our mission of serving everyone regardless of their ability to pay”.

Visit guidestar.org to learn more and view our agencies’ profiles. 

Want to help support our mission of care and services? Please make a donation online at suncoasthospicefoundation.org.

Couple Volunteers Bring Satisfaction to Patients & Families

Ellie and Ray (back) visit with Nargis.

Raymond “Ray” and Eleanor “Ellie” Weaver drop by in the morning to see Suncoast Hospice patient Nargis Fischer, who’s living at a health care facility in Palm Harbor. The husband and wife volunteers chat with Nargis about her recent trip to an aquarium and her visit with her family who came down from New Jersey.

The couple gets ready to take Nargis down the hallway to the lunchroom, and Ellie tells her she’ll bring black cherries the next time. They’ve also brought her the wafer cookies she likes and books, which she loves to read in the afternoons.

Nargis appreciates the Weavers’ company and kindness. “I don’t have anyone in Florida. I like it when they come here. I couldn’t ask for nicer people,” Nargis said.

Married for more than 54 years, the couple has volunteered together for Suncoast Hospice since 2005. Ray is an author and former activities director of facilities. Ellie previously worked in the banking industry. They visit patients and families at two Palm Harbor health care facilities twice a week. They spread lots of delight, telling stories of their travels, taking patients outdoors in nice weather and bringing patients the comforts of life.

Ray assists Nargis on the way to the lunchroom.

Ray says he enjoys supporting patients, and part of that means being attuned to their lifestyles.

“One of the things that we work very hard at is not to disrupt our patients’ routines. You have to understand where they’re at, and some days they don’t want to see anyone,” Ray said. He also likes to come in on the weekends to meet the family members of patients.

The couple is attentive to the personal needs of their patients. Ellie says it’s satisfying to do the small acts for patients.

“We had one patient who wanted clothes for her dolls, so we went around the neighborhood gathering some clothes and brought them to her here. I’ve also made sheepskin coverings to soften the arms of wheelchairs and used a voucher at one of the Suncoast Hospice resale shoppes to get clothes and shoes for a patient. It warms my heart to do the little things for our patients. My mother used to be in a nursing home, and I treat them just like it was my mom,” Ellie said.

Are you interested in being a Suncoast Hospice volunteer?

Suncoast Hospice is currently in need of volunteers to do patient and family support, office support, telephone support and bereavement support.  For more information on these and other roles, please call 727–467–7423 or visit the volunteer section on our website.

Suncoast Hospice Joins We Honor Veterans

The Suncoast Hospice veterans program has been designated as a partner level one for the We Honor Veterans program of National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

We Honor Veterans is comprised of community hospices, state hospice organizations, VA facilities and other organizations that serve veterans at the end of life. The program provides access to many educational resources to help hospice professionals meet the unique needs of dying veterans to bring them peace and comfort.

Marci Pruitt, Suncoast Hospice’s vice president of programs, shares, “We’re pleased to have achieved this level of national recognition. Suncoast Hospice remains honored and committed to serving the veterans in our community.”

Staff and veterans serving veterans volunteers watch Honor
Flight movie at our Clearwater community service center.

Our Suncoast Hospice veterans program includes special recognition and support to veterans in our care, including presentations of pins and certificates and a volunteer program that provides visits with volunteers who’ve served in the military. Our staff and volunteers also take part in veterans-related education, outreach and partnerships. Two of our ongoing partnerships to honor our local veterans are Veterans History Project and Honor Flight of West Central Florida.


To learn more about We Honor Veterans, visit www.wehonorveterans.org/.

For information about our Suncoast Hospice veterans program, call 727-523-3442.

 

Teen Volunteers Enrich Suncoast Hospice's Mission

(left to right) Teen volunteer coordinator Fabiana Compas
greets new teen volunteers Shekeema Striggles and
 Kirstin Miller at an ice cream social at
our St. Petersburg community service center.

Suncoast Hospice teen volunteers provide invaluable service to our organization and family of programs. Their passion, creativity and commitment carry through in the many activities they’re involved in.

Many teens find joy in visiting our patients and families at their homes, our care centers and various other facilities in Pinellas County. They may hold celebrations, play music or sing at bedsides or make and deliver comfort items for patients. While others like providing support at our community service centers, resale shoppes or events. No matter what roles they take on, the teen volunteers learn, grow and enrich the lives of the people we serve. 

Teen volunteer Carrie Hall volunteers at our 2012
Gift Wrap & Trees of Love event at Tyrone Square Mall.

Are you a mid-Pinellas County teen interested in becoming a Suncoast Hospice teen volunteer? Come learn more at our teen volunteer open house on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. at our Clearwater community service center. For more information, call 727-523-3431.

Want to see more about our teen volunteer program? Watch this video of the stories of four teens who have made a difference through their volunteer service.

 

Resale Shoppe Volunteer Gives All-Around Support

John tries out the DVD player.

John Zaccagnini zips around our Suncoast Hospice Resale Shoppe in Clearwater pitching in wherever he can. He answers the phone, tests a DVD player, helps a customer and starts cleaning the break room in preparation for closing.

John has been a dedicated volunteer at the store for four years. He works three days a week and sometimes on his days off doing the mechanical testing of items and practically anything else that needs to be done.

“I’m retired so I’ve got the time. I do everything. One of the greatest things about working here is you never know what’s going to come through those doors,” John said.

One of the beautiful pieces that John admires.

John has a background in hard work and an upbeat attitude. He’s a former, longtime police officer who raised a big family. He also previously served in another volunteer position at a soup kitchen.

Hospice has touched his life. His mother was cared for by a hospice in Massachusetts, which he’s grateful for because she didn’t suffer. He finds satisfaction volunteering for Suncoast Hospice.

“I work with a good bunch of people. I like to help and talk with the people who come in,” he said.

John and fellow volunteer Betty Hertlein sort inventory.

Want to help at at our resale shoppes in Clearwater, St. Petersburg or Tarpon Springs?

Call 727-467-7423 or visit our website to find out about our positions and apply.

POLST Captures End-of-Life Care Choices

By Tracy Christner
Project GRACE executive director



Tracy Christner

Very few of us want a state-of-the-art death. You know the kind – with high-tech, aggressive interventions, such as breathing machines and feeding tubes. These devices may keep you alive technically for weeks, months or even years. However, in some circumstances, such as a heart attack, many of us would want CPR. That's where the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) program comes in.

POLST is designed to help individuals in the last stages of life express their wishes regarding life-sustaining treatment. Suncoast Hospice will be the first hospice in Florida to offer POLST to its patients. The pilot will begin this fall after staff has been trained by Project GRACE, the Suncoast Hospice affiliate leading this effort.

Why POLST Is Needed

Just imagine an elderly man (Mr. M) with advanced dementia living in a nursing home.  His living will requests no CPR and no intensive care. He chose his daughter as his healthcare decision maker.

One Friday evening, Mr. M is found unresponsive with an irregular, weak pulse and extremely low blood pressure. The nursing home is unable to reach his daughter and emergency services are called. The paramedics arrive and Mr. M is resuscitated, intubated and transferred to the local hospital. His daughter learns what has happened and demands to know why his living will was not followed.

Completing a living will is often not enough to ensure that your wishes to have or limit medical treatment will be respected. Living wills are general statements of your preferences but need to be carried out through specific medical orders when the need arises. Without special arrangements, medical orders have limited authority outside of the institutions in which they are written. For example, a physician’s orders at the nursing home usually have no authority in the ambulance or hospital.

Mr. M needed a document with medical orders that were followed at each step of his care, from the nursing home to ambulance to emergency department to intensive care unit. That is what POLST does.

How POLST Works

POLST is an approach to end-of-life planning based on thoughtful, facilitated conversations between patients, loved ones and medical providers. It’s designed to ensure that seriously ill patients can choose the treatments they do and do not want based on their values, personal beliefs and current states of health.

POLST’s several advantages include:

• It’s signed by the healthcare provider. There’s no need for interpretation and translation because it’s an immediately actionable medical order.

• It’s easy to follow because it’s on a single-page, standardized form.

• Unlike DNR (do-not-resuscitate) orders, it addresses not just CPR but an entire range of life-sustaining interventions, such as IV fluids, antibiotics, feeding tubes and artificial breathing.

• It’s transportable. It remains in the patient’s chart and travels with the patient. It’s recognized and honored across all treatment settings.

POLST Provides Peace of Mind

We believe POLST to be the best tool to help our patients and their families achieve peace of mind through shared and informed medical decision making.

Just imagine if Mr. M and his physician had completed a POLST form with orders indicating “Do Not Attempt Resuscitation, Comfort Measures Only and Do Not Transfer to Hospital for Life-Sustaining Treatment.” The covering physician and daughter, who agree with the POLST orders, are called. The daughter understands that her father would be transferred to the hospital if his comfort needs cannot be met at the nursing home. The next morning, Mr. M dies in comfort at the nursing home surrounded by his daughter, other family members and the staff who know him well.

For more information on POLST or Project GRACE, visit www.projectgrace.org/POLST or call (727) 536-7364. You may also read more about POLST in Suncoast Hospice’s recent article in Tampa Bay Medical News.

Providing Spiritual Care At End Of Life

The end-of-life journey may touch the body, mind and spirit. Rev. Nina Douglas, a longtime Suncoast Hospice chaplain, helps patients and families at our care centers find spiritual peace by honoring their faith traditions.

Watch Nina discuss her spiritual care in this video.