Heartland Hospice

Heartland Hospice descended like vultures on a family member who was recovering from a broken hip in a local nursing facility. He was desperate to go home and they offered him this choice. They have done very little to help him with his injury recovery but instead have treated him only for his terminal cancer.
He has been home for almost 3 weeks and has received NO physical therapy. He is 80 years old and No physical therapy has been provided. He is in a wheelchair or in bed. I am trying to convince him to cancel this agency.

My friends 90 year old mom is receiving wonderful care with the staff from Heartland Hospice. Mom fell on Saturday and the care she received from Lisa, Lori, Elaine and her caseworker Alex was wonderful.

Heartland Hospice will provide care and assistance, if and when, it is convenient for them. If your loved one can manage to die, or your questions and need for assistance can arise Mon-​Fri 9 – 5 you might stand a chance of getting their attention. They promised that a hospice nurse would meet my brother at the house when he brought our father home from the hospital but that proved inconvenient for them so they came the next day. When I arrived Friday afternoon to take over care of my father from my brother they promised him they would phone me to see if I had any questions, they did not get around to phoning me until 2 days later. In the final 7 hours of my father’s life I was desperate to have an immediate question answered over the phone and for a nurse to come ASAP. None of the night nurses answered their phones so no one could answer my question and 5 hours later they sent a supervisor to the house. Shortly after her arrival, when it appeared to me that my father had fallen into a coma, the nurse asked me if my father usually slept with his eyes open; which obviously made me question her nursing ability. She then left the house and when my father died 15 minutes after her departure I had to call her back to request that she return to declare him dead. These people are shameful in all ways. We still cannot figure out how they were able to get to my father in the hospital and have him sign a contract with them immediately after he was declared terminally ill.

I was very pleased with my experience with Heartland. My grandmother was on hospice and living at a facility where a registered nurse would frequent regularly. Towards the end it was clear my grandmother’s health status was failing more quickly and needed to be made more comfortable. The RN on that day (Hilary) was compassionate and gentle, and I felt treated the needs of my grandmother at that time (raised her bed and administered atropine to help ease breathing efforts, gave a medication to reduce anxiety, and increased the morphine dose). There may have been other things done that I did not observe, but I was pleased with the response it had on my grandmother as it seemed she began breathing with more ease and appeared more comfortable. I was also very touched that the RN decided to stay with my grandmother even after we decided to leave.
In the hardest of moments with losing someone you love, I was happy to have the experience I did with Heartland. My memory of the last moments with my grandmother will be a pleasant one because of them.

I was recently honored to help a dear friend Hospice at home. I can’t speak to the services provided after the initial in home visit from Heartland (Marin) but I can speak to the intake process at home and the final visit upon passing. The first night two nurses came to the home, one a Hospice nurse in training, and another an experienced Hospice nurse. Both were incredibly kind, calm and I would say thorough. Death is not something that comes easy to family members or friends but knowing these nurses were there to walk us through the process was nothing short of remarkable. They answered every question we had and some we didn’t even think of. They walked us through the myriad of paperwork and they stayed with us until we were comfortable with what we were about to embark on. Clearly we had asked and received answers to every question and yet they stayed sensing our uneasiness. It wasn’t until we got out of our chairs and escorted them to the door that they left. Funny what strikes you after a loved one passes. The night my friend passed the nurse came and pronounced. She was lovely with advice for those inconsolable. She again walked us through the paperwork. She was kind and did not rush through any part of the end. I am greatly appreciative of them and hope they are always blessed considering the task they have at hand everyday.