HospiceCare, Inc.

HospiceCare, Inc. Overview

In 1978, HospiceCare, was founded by a handful of dedicated individuals who donated their time, energy and expertise to improve end-of-life care in south central Wisconsin. From a small grassroots organization originally named Dane County Hospice, HospiceCare has grown to become an invaluable community leader both in patient care and in educating others about matters related to death, dying and grief. In 1995, HospiceCare merged with Hospice Team Care in Janesville, broadening the ability to provide services in both communities. In 2000, HospiceCare opened the Don and Marilyn Anderson HospiceCare Center, the only freestanding, acute-coded inpatient hospice unit in Dane County. By the end of 2003, more than 1,700 patients had been treated in the Inpatient Unit. In 2004, HospiceCare launched the Promises to Keep Capital Campaign to fund the construction of a HospiceCare Residence. The Ellen and Peter Johnson HospiceCare Residence broke ground in May 2005 and opened in October 2006. HospiceCare’s Madison and Janesville offices employ more than 270 professionals and is supported by over 600 volunteers.

HospiceCare’s mission of “Enhancing Quality of Life at the End of Life” is put into practice every day. Yet bringing comfort to terminally ill patients and their families is more than a mission—it’s a way of delivering care that addresses the needs of the whole person at a significant time of life. Whether comfort takes the form of physical, emotional or spiritual care, our interdisciplinary team is ready to provide comprehensive hospice services to every person in our community who needs and wants them.

Most patients and families want to receive care in the home. More than 90 percent of HospiceCare services are delivered in patients’ homes or in homelike settings such as community-based residential facilities, assisted living facilities and nursing homes. HospiceCare also makes hospice services available to patients in hospital settings.

When in-home care cannot meet the needs of our patients and families, short-term inpatient care at the Inpatient Unit of the Don and Marilyn Anderson HospiceCare Center in Madison or contracted hospitals and skilled nursing facilities may be an option. The Inpatient Unit provides short-term, intensive monitoring and treatment of acute pain or other complex symptoms. HospiceCare also recognizes the need to provide families a break from ongoing caregiving by offering respite care.

Many factors influence where patients and families receive care—wishes and desires, symptoms, the patient’s support network and much more. But regardless of the setting, HospiceCare’s team approach to providing compassionate end-of-life care remains the same.

The Business Situation

The HospiceCare locations each were operating their own PBX switched phone system; with Janesville supporting at Toshiba Strata and the Madison location a Seimans 150E Office Pro System. Both systems were reaching hardware limits with Janesville at about 50 phones and Madison surpassing 200 phones. HospiceCare relies heavily on providing a live voice for calls and using the voicemail system to communicate. After-hours calls were being outsourced to provide a live voice and the voicemail ports, were maxing out resulting in busy signals. The Toshiba system was no longer supported by the manufacturer and the Seimans was at a point where it had to be expanded with a significant financial investment and expensive mid-life telco maintenance purchased to support it. As the HospiceCare staff reviewed what they wanted a system to do for the organization, key points were centralized call processing and voicemail administered in-house, in Madison Data Center, fast four digit dialing between locations that utilized existing service provider infrastructure, a wireless WiFi network for staff and patient use, routing to provide a live voice to answer after hours calls, voicemail that supported the growing outbound staffing including extensive inbound/outbound voicemail volume, quick call routing at front-line, a secure network supporting multiple IT services, custom messages on hold, implementation on budget and on time and safe, resilient, multi-service network ready for future needs. The Cisco Converged Medical Grade Network was able to meet HospiceCare network expectations and add features previously unavailable with other systems. The time frame from signature to implementation was extremely tight as the construction project was due to complete and the new facility set to open in less than 60 days.

The Solution

HospiceCare, selected DirectNetworks to install the Medical-Grade Network, backed by Cisco Systems Technology. The resilient Medical-Grade Network allowed HospiceCare to use current overhead paging, music on hold, routers, switches and firewalls already in place on the network and either ready for or easily adaptable to Cisco IP backbone. Because the Cisco Medical-Grade Network is multi service, HospiceCare was able to further utilize the Cisco Data Backbone to transport a new scaleable, in-house administered, Cisco IP Telephone system that would enable expansion to new floors, provide a more efficient use of staff and integrate with patient services at any time in the future. The Cisco IP Telephone System allowed HospiceCare to confidently replace their end of life Lucent phone switch with a multi-service solution that also allowed HospiceCare to deploy secure facility-wide Cisco Wireless WiFi Umbrella which allows safe, separate mobile staff network and guest internet access while protecting patient information. With the Medical-Grade Network in place, HospiceCare will be future technology proof and able to add services such as IP Cable TV, Collaboration Services, Premise Security and any other IP services available, all on one scaleable, easy to administer network.

Business Benefits After Solution Implementation

A resilient, multi-serve data Medical-Grade backbone which can accommodate current and future IP and Healthcare Technologies will future-proof the network and provide HospiceCare with investment protection for many years to come. Organization-wide productivity enhancements of internal and external staff will be realized through unified communications, wireless mobility, real time healthcare services, efficient staff communication and optional integrated medical applications. To respond quicker and serve patients better, calls will be routed quicker, answered by a live voice, staff will be more closely connected and updated, designated personal can be reached live twenty four hours per day, branch locations will be directly connected via extension and directory updates will improve company communications. The redundant Call Manager call processing system and automated call distribution will be available twenty-four hours per day to ensure no calls are missed. The Cisco Wireless Network will enhance staff productivity through secure mobility throughout the building campus and provide patients and families wireless access on a separate guest access internet network. Since the system is based on IP software and servers, HospiceCare will again protect it’s investment and never outgrow it’s purchase, which is very important considering their extensive growth history. DirectNetworks’ Cisco Medical-Grade, Multi-Services Network allows HospiceCare to combine previously segmented data, voice, wireless, storage and security providers and services on one network and optionally integrate future Healthcare Technologies and Applications into the Network to provide investment protection, enhanced productivity, better patient care, quicker response, efficient staff usage and a return on investment.