Pathways Hospice

Description

About Pathways Hospice care
Pathways Hospice offers fullspectrum hospice care 24 hours a day 7 days a week every day of the year Our specialized teams provide comfort expert medical care pain management and emotional and spiritual support tailored to each patients needs and wishes Most care is provided in homes but we also provide care in skilled nursing facilities assisted living facilities hospitals and any place you would call quothomequot

At the center of our philosophy of hospice care is the belief that each of us has the right to be painfree and to live and die with dignity To achieve this we provide holistic care including providing support to friends and family

Our Mission
Honoring every moment of life Pathways Hospice Community Care for Northern Colorado provides compassionate excellent comprehensive care for those who have an advanced medical condition and those who are grieving

To us hospice care is not about how you die it is about how you live how you live each moment to the fullest extent possible Since each persons experience is unique this means we provide different things for different people You might want someone to run errands a support group for your teenager alternative pain management assistance arranging your finances or listening and companionship Pathways Hospice has the broad and deep resources to support you as you navigate this experience

Our goals are to provide exceptional comfort care and to enhance patients quality of life

We care for the whole personphysical emotional spiritual social and we also provide support for the whole family We make every effort to create an environment which not only supports people in transition sadness and loss but also fosters dignity connection enjoyment learning and peace

Supporting our community
Grief touches all of us so as part of Pathways Hospices mission we offer our hospice care grief support and education to our entire community Within our service area we serve anyone and everyone who needs our care regardless of age background beliefs insurance status financial ability language lifestyle or type of illness

History

History of Pathways Hospice
Pathways Hospice has true grassroots origins in our community In May of 1978 a terminally ill patient in Larimer County requested hospice services At that time no such program existed this was at the very beginning of hospice care in the US The first US hospice had opened in New Haven Connecticut in 1974 and hospice care was not yet a widespread movement

So in a public meeting citizens and local officials met to determine whether sufficient need and support existed to proceed with organizing a local hospice The response at the community meeting was very encouraging and many people volunteered their time and services

A steering committee appointed during that first meeting took on the task of appointing a board of directors for the new hospice The committee secured a 2500 grant for startup funds from the Colorado Commission on Aging Recruitment and training of additional volunteers began immediately And less than a year later on February 1 1979 Pathways Hospice was incorporated by the state of Colorado as a nonprofit taxexempt corporation

As the hospice industry evolved to include state licensure and oversight Pathways Hospice became certified as a Medicare and Medicaid Home Health Agency 1984 licensed by the Colorado Department of Health 1985 certified as a Medicare Hospice 1986 and certified as a Colorado Medicaid hospice provider 1991 The organization is audited annually and regularly surveyed for compliance with state and federal regulations

Pathways Hospice services started in Fort Collins expanded to Loveland and Berthoud and now cover almost all of Larimer and western Weld counties Committed to comprehensive universally available 247 hospice care Pathways Hospice became a charter member of the Hospice Alliance of Colorado which works to increase access and availability of hospice throughout Colorado Pathways Hospice was also the lead agency on the Larimer County Palliative Care Project funded by the Colorado Trust the program improved universal access to hospice care in our community

Very early in its development Pathways Hospice also established a grief support program for families and friends of hospice patients and to others in our community These support education and outreach services evolved into todays Pathways programone of the leading grief and bereavement care programs in the country

Pathways Hospice has grown steadily over the years We started as an allvolunteer organization serving 17 patients for a total of 466 service days in its first year of operation We now have 120 professional staff 213 volunteers and a budget of over 9 million Currently we serve more than 950 patients annually providing more than 47000 collective days of care each year As part of our growth we have expanded our facilities to include an inpatient unit in McKee Medical Center an office in Windsor and dedicated space for the Pathways programs

Throughout this growth Pathways Hospice has maintained its nonprofit status and commitment to providing exceptional comprehensive hospice care to any person in need in its service area

These 30 years serving our community have been a real source of organizational strength Pathways Hospice has built strong relationships with physicians pharmacists specialty therapists nursing homes and many other human service and social service agencies Affirming our communitybased communityfocused approach these relationships have proven an invaluable resource helping us meet the varied needs of our patients and their families