Home Health & Hospice Week

New hospice inpatient facilities open.

Local governments continue to get out of the home health and hospice business.

For example: In Kentucky, the WEDCO Health District, which serves four counties, has sold its home health division to the nonprofit Bluegrass Care Navigators (BCN), reports Spectrum News 1. That leaves WEDCO without health department-provided home health services for the first time in 50 years, the news outlet says. BCN has served Harrison, Scott, Bourbon and Nicholas counties for more than 30 years as the local provider of hospice care, with a regional office located in Cynthiana.

In 2007, 24 of the state’s 61 health districts offered home health. Now just five do, Spectrum News 1 says. “Home health used to be a revenue generating service for us,” but that’s no longer the case, WEDCO Health director Crystal Miller tells the news outlet.

Another example: The Oswego County, New York health committee has voted to close the county’s hospice agency, according to press reports. The closure is largely due to the hospice’s inability to attract and retain nurses. The county will file a closure plan with an end date about a year from now.

Governments aren’t the only ones exiting the business. In West Springfield, Massachusetts, Trinity Health will close its Trinity Health at Home home health and hospice agency laying off 60 workers, reports MassLive. “Nationwide, health systems are experiencing broad shifts in patient volumes, staffing challenges, including high-cost agency contracts, and increasing supply and pharmacy costs,” said a Trinity Health representative.

Meanwhile, hospices continue to open inpatient facilities:

In Iowa: Hospice of the Red River Valley has broken ground on a new inpatient facility called “Heather’s House” in Fargo, according to press reports. The facility will have 18 patient rooms. The nonprofit covers 40 counties and serves 400 patients daily, it says.

In Colorado: Pathways hospice is set to open a new 12-bed inpatient facility in Loveland, it says on its website. Until the new facility opens later this summer, Pathways is operating a temporary facility in Fort Collins, it notes.