Preface

This book is in its third edition. The second, last edition, was published in 2005. So much has happened to hospice from regulatory, growth, and other perspectives. This newest edition is dedicated to all the clinicians and managers who make hospice the special way of caring for people and their families that it is. Hospice operations demand a commitment and attention to detail rarely found in other businesses or work settings.

This book is for the nurses, physicians, aides, pharmacists, chaplains, and others providing spiritual care, and other team members who provide important care while meeting often difficult and multilevel regulations.

This also acknowledges everyone in the office who support daily operations: the schedulers, on-call teams, administrative staff, quality improvement team members, human resource team members, educators, billers, sales people, CEOs, COOs, CFOs, executive directors, business/corporate strategists, and customer service representatives—those who strive for “business as usual” whether there is an ice storm, a hurricane pending, a power outage, or any of numerous other events that affect patients and families and home care and hospice operations.

Thanks to all of you for what you contribute to the hospice profession every day!

The author can be contacted directly at info@e-caregiving.com.