Our home health service began in 1985, and our hospice service traces its roots to 1982 when Sr. Mary Jane Van Dyke trained the first group of Atchison hospice volunteers.
For several years, this all volunteer organization provided care to dying patients and their families who wanted to spend their days at home in familiar surroundings instead of in the hospital. Back then the U.S. hospice movement was only a few years old, but over the years, hospice care has become mainstream and is provided for by Medicare, Medicaid, and other health insurance plans. In 1992 Atchison Hospital took over the administration and management of Hospice of Atchison, but volunteer service continues to be an integral part of the organization.
Home Health Care
Your own home is the most comfortable place to be. As medical care changes, having the best care at home is more important than ever. As hospital stays become shorter and shorter, more technical and skilled medical procedures are being done in the home. Amberwell Health at Home staff is highly trained to meet your needs; they are compassionate and often feel like one of the family. Hospice services are offered in your home as well when a cure is no longer an option.
We offer:
- Wound and ostomy care.
- IV management and administration.
- Lab draws in the home
- Full rehabilitation services, Physical therapist, Occupational therapist and Speech therapist.
- Medical Social Work to help with life planning.
- Personal attendant care for bathing.
- 24/7 on call Nurse
- Local staff able to respond quickly to your needs and an active part of the community
Hospice Care
When curative treatments are no longer helpful and recovery is not possible, Amberwell Health at Home will provide comfort care wherever the patient’s home may be. Under the direction of the patient’s physician, the hospice team will do everything possible to alleviate pain and discomfort. The focus of care is to enable the patient to live every day as well as possible.
The hospice team includes the patient, caregivers, physician, nurses, nurse aides, a social worker, a chaplain, and trained hospice volunteers. We all work together to alleviate whatever form of suffering the patient is experiencing: physical, emotional, or spiritual. It is a great comfort for our patients and their families that nurses are available locally to respond quickly to any concern that arises at any time of the night or day. Hospice philosophy has been summarized this way by Dame Cicely Saunders, founder of the modern hospice movement: “You matter to the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but to live until you die.”
If you or someone you know needs home health or hospice care, call Amberwell Health at Home at 913-360-5520. We will be happy to give you more information and work with your doctor to make arrangements to get started. In many cases, physicians will order home heath or hospice services when a patient is discharged from the hospital.
Wherever you are hospitalized, be sure to ask for Amberwell Health at Home when you come back home to Atchison.
