As a Medicare-certified hospice, Hospice East Bay is required to have nurses available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer questions or give advice.
How Hospice East Bay fulfills this requirement sets us apart from other hospices in several ways:
- Every patient or family who calls speaks to a real person – every call, every time. Hospice East Bay advice nurses answer patient phone calls, so you will never get an automated system.
- Hospice East Bay has dedicated advice nurses. Some hospice agencies use their daytime nurses to handle these phone calls, even rotating them through evening shifts. By having dedicated advice nurses, our daytime nurses can concentrate on being with their patients. During their non-working hours, they can get much needed rest to enjoy a good work/life balance.
- Hospice East Bay advice nurses work 8-hour shifts: days, evenings and nights. Other hospice agencies use nurses for 12- or 16-hour shifts, often leaving them tired and potentially less responsive.
- Hospice East Bay uses an electronic medical record, which means that all staff members have access to every patient’s medication list, most recent visit notes, etc. This computer record allows our nurses to look up information quickly and give the best advice.
- If the question or problem cannot be handled over the phone, Hospice East Bay makes sure nurses are available around the clock to make a visit to find out what’s going on and do hands-on care.
At Hospice East Bay, our motto is to “do the right thing at the right time” because our patients deserve to be treated right. We do our best to fulfill that motto and to always be “here when you need us.”
