Community Hospice to expand services to Suwannee Valley
Published 5:00 pm Sunday, December 31, 2017
- Community Hospice
JACKSONVILLE — Community Hospice & Palliative Care will expand into Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwannee counties, as well as eight other counties, beginning Monday.
Community Hospice was selected by the Florida Agency of Health Care Administration this year to provide service to the 11 counties in 3A, north-central Florida. Those 11 counties include Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwannee as well as Alachua, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Levy, Putnam and Union.
Haven Hospice and Hospice of Citrus County are the two licensed programs currently serving the area.
“I’m thrilled to be leading our expansion into 3A because my neighbors now have a choice when it comes to advanced illness and end-of-life care,” said Belena “Billie” Adkins, RN, BSN, CHPN, 3A Regional Director, in a release. Adkins, a Baker County native, began her career at Community Hospice & Palliative Care in 2004 and is a board certified hospice and palliative care nurse, caring for patients wherever they call home.
“Our compassionate and innovative care will be provided to the community-at-large by fellow residents. Our new launch into 3A is neighbor helping neighbor and we’ll be there 24/7 when they need us.”
In addition to its new markets next year, Community Hospice currently provides careen Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties with more than 900 employees and 1,000 volunteers.
In addition to the four levels of adult hospice care as defined by Medicare, Community Hospice says it will also provide:
• Advanced Care Planning
• Caregiver Education and Support
• Grief and bereavement support for up to 13 months
• Integrative and complementary therapies such as music therapy, pet therapy, etc.
• Palliative care (advanced illness symptom management)
• Pediatric palliative care, hospice care, and bereavement camp
• Veterans programs
• Volunteer involvement
“We look forward to bringing these and many more programs and services to the residents of 3A,” says President and CEO Susan Ponder-Stansel. “We are here to get to know them, to listen to them and ensure we provide our neighboring patients and families with the best care possible. We want to be the choice for compassionate care at the time in life when they need us the most.”
A ribbon cutting for Community Hospice’s first office in the new region will be held Jan. 12 in Palate at 4 p.m. The next office will open in Lake City in a few months.