MVHPC is an independent organization and not affiliated with any healthcare system. “We were born in the community, and we remain in the community, serving the community,” said MVHPC’s President and CEO Kara Travis. “That’s one thing that differentiates us.”
For the past 35 years, Mohawk Valley Hospice & Palliative Care (MVHPC) has been the sole Hospice provider in Fulton County, serving not only county residents, but those in three neighboring areas. The nonprofit continues to expand its mission of serving patients and their loved ones during one of the most vulnerable times of their lives.
A well-rounded team of professionals including physicians, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, social workers, certified home health aides, spiritual counselors, therapists, volunteers, leadership and administration staff serve each hospice patient that comes into MVHPC’s care with an individual, patient-driven plan. In addition, social workers and bereavement counselors work with their loved ones.
The staff of around 50 employees provides care in patients’ homes, long-term care facilities and in its 8-bed Nancy Dowd Hospice Home (NDHH) that opened in 2005 in Gloversville.
Patients can stay at NDHH as long as they need to and as they remain medically certified for hospice care. Medical personnel staff the home around the clock. There are eight private rooms that have a bathroom, closet, and private entrance onto a patio overlooking either the gardens or hillside. Staff prepares homemade meals featuring locally sourced ingredients in a communal dining room, or patients can prepare their own meals in the patient kitchen.
“It does not matter geographically where patients come from,” Travis said, noting that as long as they are medically qualified, they can be from outside MVHPC’s four-county region.
MVHPC runs the NDHH largely through the generosity of donors. “We rely heavily on fundraising dollars to keep the doors open,” Travis said. While Medicare pays for the room and board for a person at the Hospice House, the reimbursement rate is low, and in many cases, not enough to cover the expenses of patient care. In addition, MVHPC pays for medications, durable medical equipment, and staffing.
Other sources of funding for the expanding organization are grants and trusts. For example, the Fulton County Center for Regional Growth helped MVHPC apply for a $100,000 grant from the New York State Department of Labor to create its new palliative care program that launched in 2021.
As it continually assessed the needs of the community, MVHPC discovered a large gap in the care continuum. “Doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are asking for additional layers of support,” Travis said. Palliative care can help to keep people out of emergency rooms and hospitals and in their own homes by helping them manage their pain and symptoms and collaborating with the patients’ own physicians on care.
The palliative care program has been in such high demand that there is a waiting list, and the organization had to add an additional nurse practitioner. “We’re really making an impact in the number of visits we’re preventing from emergency room and hospitalization,” Travis said.
MVHPC leases a space in Amsterdam to see palliative care patients two days a week, but staff visits the bulk of patients in their homes. A registered nurse goes to patients’ homes and meets with them and their families to assess their needs and then dials up a nurse practitioner for a telehealth visit. In fact, the service has been deemed so outstanding that the Adirondack Health Institute honored MVHPC with a telehealth innovator award in 2022. In between visits, just like hospice patients, palliative care patients have 24/7 phone access to a registered nurse.
While there is no funding for palliative care, MVHPC is dedicated to providing it because this program serves the people in the community, and it also helps to address one of MVHPC’s biggest challenges, which is that patients come into hospice care too late.
“They call us in crisis, and there is very little we can do,” Travis said. “Twenty-four, 48- and 72- hour stays are really the bulk of our business. We can do a lot more when we’re in there sooner. We really offer a full complement of services, and we are trying to get the word out to people, both patients themselves and the healthcare community.” An informational meeting with MVHPC costs nothing and allows patients and their families to learn about the full array of services that the organization can offer during this difficult time.
“We find that as high as 85 percent of our palliative care patients are hospice-eligible, but they’re not ready yet,” Travis said. “Our primary goal is to get to know patients and families sooner when they’re not in crisis so we can travel with them, and when they need some more complicated care, it’s easier to make that transition,” Travis said. The palliative care program allows MVHPC to do this
Nancy Bishop did not wait for a crisis to reach out to MVHPC. She contacted them when her husband, Ed, became ill with stage four cancer. At first, hospice helped the couple by sending a nurse five days a week to their home which Bishop said worked very well. However, as the disease progressed, that needed to change. “It got to the point where I wasn’t able to handle him,” Bishop said. “We already had him all signed up. We called, and they were here probably within an hour or an hour and a half and picked him up.”
Ed moved into the NDHH for care. “It was a life-changing experience,” she said. “They treated you like you were family. It’s really kind of indescribable. I couldn’t ask for better people—the nurses, the aides, the housekeeping. They were all very compassionate. He died with people that loved him, and there was kindness all around him. You couldn’t be happier than that.”
Ed moved into the NDHH for care. “It was a life-changing experience,” she said. “They treated you like you were family. It’s really kind of indescribable. I couldn’t ask for better people—the nurses, the aides, the housekeeping. They were all very compassionate. He died with people that loved him, and there was kindness all around him. You couldn’t be happier than that.”
MOVING FORWARD
Despite the administrative and financial challenges of operating the organization and the hospice house in particular, Travis and her staff are dedicated to maintaining and expanding the services MVHPC offers to Fulton County residents and beyond. “The phrase I often use for hospice homes is that we’re really an endangered species,” Travis said. “We’re facing some pretty big challenges over the next few years. One is the threat of for-profits coming into New York State. We’re actively fighting that right now with legislators and the governor.” Travis has been watching the negative impact on the quality of care and the rise of fraud in Oregon, California, and Arizona where for-profit hospices operate.
“The phrase I often use for hospice homes is that we’re really an endangered species,” Travis said. “We’re facing some pretty big challenges over the next few years. One is the threat of for-profits coming into New York State. We’re actively fighting that right now with legislators and the governor.” Travis has been watching the negative impact on the quality of care and the rise of fraud in Oregon, California, and Arizona where for-profit hospices operate.
To reduce administrative expenses, MVHPC is working with seven other regional hospices across the state to create an independent practice association (IPA). This would allow each hospice to maintain its own brand, local control, and visibility while sharing redundant administrative and back-office expenses. The executive director of the IPA would negotiate contracts with businesses that could supply shared services. “Then we would have more resources to pay our staff,” Travis said.
“MVHPC is committed to Gloversville and the communities that we serve,” she said. “In order to do that, we’re going to have to partner with others and be in it together to keep the service and benefit going for our neighbors and our loved ones.”
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