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Hospice Medical Directors’ Resources

Hospice Resources for Medical Directors

Care Delivery: The Compassus Way​

Care Delivery the Compassus Way is based on the foundational understanding that all patients with serious illnesses and at the end of life have universal needs. These needs are comfort, safety and autonomy, and quality of life.  

Onboarding Checklist

Annual Training Checklist

Workplace Essentials & Tools

Referral > Prognosis > Eligibility > Admission >Certification

  • Initial Certification: 15 days prior to 2 days after election of hospice services
  • Recertification: 15 days prior to 2 days after new benefit period
  • Conduct face-to-face visit: within 30 days prior to new certification period (Only required prior to 3rd benefit period and any subsequent benefit periods).
  • Notice of Termination: within 5 days after a patient is discharged from hospice
  • Certification of Terminal Illness

Homecare Homebase (HCHB)

  • Hospice Electronic Medical Record (EMR)
  • Patient documentation for all specialties
  • Review and create narratives
  • Order signature & medication reconciliation
  • Documentation of face-to-face visits
  • Utilization of nVoq HIPPA compliant speech recognition (see video here)

HCHB IDT Console

Medical Director Responsibilities

  • Timely documentation (IDT notes, F2F, CTI, order signatures & timesheets)
  • Activate & utilize Compassus email/Microsoft Teams
    • Promptly respond to messages and calls (urgent requests within the hour)
  • Timely face-to-face completion
  • Participate in quarterly medical director meeting
  • Notify DCS when taking time off and coordinate coverage
  • Death certificate completion
  • Establish and maintain accreditation Hospice Medical Director Certification
  • Medical Directors Roles and Responsibilities
  • Participate in QAPI (Quality assessment Performance Improvement)   
  • Lead Interdisciplinary team (IDT) (Bimonthly meeting to develop a patient and family-centered plan of care)
  • Document clinical disease progression to initiate, maintain, or recommend discontinuing hospice services 

General Inpatient Care (GIP)

  • Short-term hospice care for symptom control not achieved in an outpatient setting (intractable pain, terminal agitation, IV drip)
  • Daily documentation supporting the need for inpatient care
  • Develop a disposition plan in advance of symptom control
  • GIP is not a substitute or bridge to nursing home placement
  • GIP Toolkit(PDF, 4.1 MB)
  • GIP Care for the Hospice Patient

Interdisciplinary Team Meeting (IDT)

Pain Assessment & Opioid Stewardship

Onboarding

CME, Meetings & Resources