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About Southcoast Home Care, Hospice & Palliative Care & Infusion
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Southcoast Home Care Services, Hospice & Palliative Care & Infusion is licensed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, certified through the Medicare program and Accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
Our mission is to provide health care services and to take a leadership position in furthering the provision of quality health care for the benefit of the residents of greater New Bedford and Wareham.
Home Care
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Home Care Services include:
- Skilled nursing.
- Medical social services.
- Rehabilitation.
- Health promotion and education.
- Nutritional counseling.
- Advocacy and referral.
- Home telemonitoring.
- Home care aide.
Services are available 365 days a year with staff on-call at all times.
Hospice & Palliative Care
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Southcoast Hospice & Palliative Care is an interdisciplinary program of the Home Care Services Department that provides care, comfort and support to terminally ill patients and families in their own homes.
Hospice is a philosophy of care that accepts death as a natural part of life. For individuals who have been diagnosed with a life expectancy of weeks or months, hospice care facilitates the highest quality of life possible. Southcoast Hospice program is about administering that quality of life through caring.
The hospice team, consisting of a registered nurse, the patient's physician, and a medical social worker offers a full scope of services to patients and their caregivers. Additionally there may be home care aides, rehabilitation services, volunteer services and spiritual and bereavement support.
Complementary therapies, which includes Reiki, therapeutic touch, aromatherapy and guided energy is available to all hospice patients.
A palliative care program is offered through Hospice. In this program, the hospice nurse cares for clients with terminal diagnoses who are not yet ready to give up active treatment. This facilitates a smooth transition to the hospice program when the time is right. In addition, the hospice program has contracted with area long-term care facilities to provide hospice care to terminally ill residents.
All hospice clients receive bereavement support for approximately one year after the death of the patient. We provide ongoing support groups for hospice families and the community at large. Bereavement support groups are offered for adults in English and Portuguese and for children and adolescents from ages 5 through 18. These groups are free and open to the public.
Infusion
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Southcoast Home Infusion Therapy allows patients who must be treated with intravenous (IV) medications to be treated in the comfort of their own home. Clinical Specialists are qualified to plan and implement a safe and effective program for any patient who requires IV therapy. The patient has an improved ability to recover in the home setting. Home Care can relieve much of the stress experienced by patients and families and is welcomed as an alternative to hospital care.
We work closely with local physicians to develop each patient's plan of care. Most of our services are covered under insurance plans and we accept Medicare, Medicaid and private insurance plans, including HMOs and PPOs. Therapies provided include pain management, total parenteral nutrition, enteral nutrition, hydration therapy and IV antibiotic therapy.
