by Patti Moore

Are you distressed by the many negative news stories we’ve seen about hospice in recent days?  I certainly am.

            From the headlines last week in the Dallas Morning News -  Frisco hospice exec admits overdosing patients ‘to hasten their deaths’ and make more money- to the report out this week from the Office of the Inspector General, Vulnerabilities in the Medicare Hospice Program Affect Quality Care and Program Integrity: An OIG Portfolio, which focused on the very things that are, or are supposed to be the hallmarks of hospice care: pain management, patient AND family support, 27/7 care availability and provision of the 4 levels of hospice care. What did they find? That  “hospices do not always provide needed services to beneficiaries and sometimes provide poor quality care. In some cases, hospices were not able to effectively manage symptoms or medications, leaving beneficiaries in unnecessary pain for many days.” 

            Dying patients who are in pain and are left untreated is part of the reason Dr. Cicely Saunders started modern day hospice 40+ years ago.  It is part of the reason I went into hospice 30+ years ago; to relieve pain and suffering and support patients and their families to live fully and comfortably until death.  It is unthinkable to me that a person in pain would not be aggressively treated, as the report suggests “…for many days”. 

            Then, the idea that someone would knowingly give patients overdoses to hasten their deaths to make more money is beyond my wildest imaginings.  And yet, it is happening.  Certainly, this type of behavior is rare, but I have to wonder: if your boss told you to give a patient an overdose to speed up their death in order to make more money, would you do it?

            That is the issue that troubles me most.  Unfortunately, there will always be people in the world – and sometimes in positions of leadership - who have no morals or ethics. But what about the good people who work for them?  What is the best course of action when you’re asked to do something that goes against your values/ethics/morals? 

            As an evolved and morally aware species we’re capable of noble heights – and abysmal depths. The darkest of those depths have been sounded in times when people turned away from what they knew was right to “follow orders”. As the signs in the airport say, “If you see something, say something.” Ultimately, we’re each answerable for our choice to speak up or to stay silent when we see something that cuts against our founding principles and our mission. 

            If you are a hospice worker and you are told to do something that goes against your better judgment, don’t just follow orders.  It is your legal responsibility as a licensed nurse or doctor or social worker to question any illicit activity. It is your ethical responsibility as a healthcare worker to do what’s in the patient’s best interests. And it’s your moral responsibility as a human being to treat your fellow beings with compassion and dignity.

 Our modern day Hospice founder Dame Cicely Saunders

Bravo to Hospice of the Chesapeakefor this stellar outreach effort!Our hospices bring value to the community when we step up to lead the conversation in areas in which we’re highly knowledgeable:

            “Every day, people in our community make decisions during a health crisis, burdened by a desire to do right by their loved one while not knowing exactly what that would be. Life altering medical choices or dealing with loss are not popular topics of discussion around the dinner table.   Normalizing that conversation is the reason behind the revolutionary idea of offering a free day of learning to anyone in the community who wants to be more informed and better prepared in the event of serious illness or loss. The Caring for the Continuum of Life: A 2018 Healthcare Symposium will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 3 at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland.   Hosted by the Chesapeake Life Center, Hospice of the Chesapeake and Chesapeake Palliative Medicine, the symposium will address topics in three educational tracks as well as provide opening and closing speakers.”

A beautiful story of compassion paid forward at Hope Hospice’s Camp BraveHeart:

“NEWPORT — Forrest Ficke lost his father, Charlie Ficke, in 2007 when he was six years old.

            On Friday, Ficke was in the woods of North Scituate. Hope Hospice & Palliative Care Rhode Island’s Camp BraveHeart, a summer camp for children grappling with loss and grief, is located there. This summer marks the first in which the 18-year-old Ficke attended the camp as a volunteer instead of a camper. In a phone interview with The Daily News, the Newport resident shared stories of his experience with Camp BraveHeart and the impact his father’s life and death had on him.

            From the age of 6 to 17, Ficke attended the two-day camp every summer, he said. Camp BraveHeart served as a haven for Ficke in the aftermath of his father’s death, and he wanted to give back when he came of age to volunteer.”