Hospice and Palliative Care - Mountain Home VA Healthcare System
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Mountain Home VA Healthcare System

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Hospice and Palliative Care

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Services Offered by the Hospice & Palliative Care Program Team includes:

  • Hospice and Palliative Care Consultation Service
  • Home Hospice Care
  • Pain and Symptom Management
  • Bereavement & Spiritual Programs
  • Social Work Support
  • Nutritional Care

Palliative Care

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of Veterans and their families, facing the problems associated with life threatening illness, through the prevention and relief from suffering, by means of early identification, impeccable assessment, treatment of pain and other problems whether they are physical, psychosocial, or spiritual. (World Health Organization, 2002)

Hospice Care

Hospice provides quality of care at the end of life. Our hospice Veterans are provided with pain control, spiritual, physical, nutritional, and emotional care for the terminally ill patient and family. Hospice does not try to hasten or post-pone death, but focus on the quality of life when cure is no longer possible. Hospice care can be provided at a facility such as a community nursing home, the Community Living Center, at the James H. Quillen VA Medical Center or in or at the veteran’s home. Usually, a family member is the main caregiver (in the home setting), and the home hospice team members visit the Veteran regularly for additional care, support and other services, as well as establishes a plan of care for the Veteran.

How Can a Veteran be admitted to a Hospice Program?

The veteran must meet all the following:

  • If a Veteran has an illness and the patient’s life expectancy is six months or less, (the Veteran’s provider can place a Hospice Consult to help determine this).
  • The Veteran and/or family ask for and need hospice services.
  • The Veteran and family are aware of the patient’s life expectancy.
  • The Veteran desires care for quality of life rather than cure.

How can I learn more about Hospice?

Ask a social worker or a provider about how to be referred to a hospice program. A member of the Hospice Care Team can visit to talk to you and your family and explain hospice and palliative care more fully.

Contacts

Hospice & Palliative Care Team Members
Phone Number: 423.926.1171

Dr. Angela May, MD, Medical Director
Extension 2368		 Dr. Christine Adler, Psychologist
Extension 7853
Drew Turner, NP, Program Coordinator
Extension 2368		 Kathleen Neal, Nurse Practitioner
Extension 2368
Jennifer Holtsclaw, Social Worker
Extension 2842		 Donna Emmert, Dietitian
Extension 2388
Kevin Holmes, Chaplain
Extension 7902		 Cecil Carter, Program Support Assistant
Extension 2368
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Contact Info

Location

  • James H. Quillen VA Medical Center

Contact Number(s)

  • 423-926-1171

Hours of Operation

  • M-F, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.