FORT SCOTT –– A new hospice service dedicated to caring for terminally ill residents in Bourbon and Crawford County has achieved a significant milestone. Mount Carmel Hospice, a non-profit service operating within the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas (CHC/SEK), has officially obtained accreditation from CHAP, the Community Health Accreditation Partner, Inc., for meeting Hospice Standards.
The CHAP Accreditation demonstrates that Mount Carmel Hospice meets the industry’s highest nationally recognized standards. As patients near the end of life, hospice care focuses on the quality of life when quantity of life is limited. Hospice care helps patients live their final months with the greatest comfort and dignity and care is provided for the whole family, not just the person with the illness.
Mount Carmel Hospice was incorporated in 2023 by CHC/SEK after Bourbon County’s locally operating hospice service closed. Mount Carmel Hospice is currently accepting patient enrollments from Bourbon and Crawford counties. Expansion into additional areas is planned for the near future.
Mount Carmel Hospice takes its name to honor the legacy of Sisters of St. Joseph of Wichita, who were early pioneers in healthcare and founders of Mount Carmel Hospital in Pittsburg in 1902.
To be hospice-eligible, a patient must receive a diagnosis of a terminal illness from a physician, with a life expectancy of 6 months or less if the illness follows its normal course. Hospice services are fully covered by Medicare and most other insurance plans. If the terminal condition improves, the patient can be discharged from hospice and returned to curative treatment. If need be, patients can return later to hospice care.
The care team at Mount Carmel Hospice includes compassionate experts to help manage symptoms, so patients can feel comfortable and spend their final days in ways that are important to them. Nurses are available around the clock, seven days a week. Social workers, chaplains, home health aides, volunteers, and bereavement counselors each contribute to wrapping an extra layer of compassion and support to the patients and their loved ones.
Volunteers are also an important part of the hospice team, bringing their special skills and talents with them that they can share. Volunteers offer the gift of time to devote to patients and families. Additional services include grief support groups, which are available to anyone in the community free of charge.
To contact Mount Carmel Hospice, please call 620-264-6550 or email Becky Davied, at [email protected]. For those interested in volunteering with Mount Carmel Hospice, please contact a hospice representative at 620-264-6550 or apply for a volunteer position on our website at chcsek.org/careers.
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About the Community Health Center of the Southeast Kansas
The Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas is a not-for-profit Federally Qualified Health Center based in Pittsburg, KS dedicated to providing quality health care to everyone regardless of income or insurance status. CHC/SEK serves more than 60,000 children and adults annually at clinic sites in Bourbon, Crawford, Cherokee, Labette, Linn, Montgomery, and Allen counties, and in Ottawa County, Oklahoma. For more information, visit www.chcsek.org.