When you or someone you care about is in the final phase of life, Gundersen Palmer Hospice provides support and care. We're a Medicare-certified, non-profit organization.
Our focus of care is on the patient and family as a unit. The goal of Hospice care is to provide the appropriate assistance to enable you to make this particular time as meaningful and loving as possible in an environment free from stress and pain.
Hospice care is provided by a team consisting of a physician, nurse, home health aide, pharmacist, social worker, chaplain and trained volunteers.
Gundersen Palmer Hospice provides comprehensive and compassionate care in your home, the nursing home or hospital.
Our team
- Our medical director is a physician who oversees the medical component of Hospice.
- Nurses have experience in pain symptom control. We have a nurse on call, 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.
- Social workers help patients and families cope with the emotional and financial stresses of illness. Social workers are on call 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week.
- Homemakers/home health aides assist with patients' personal care and household chores.
- Chaplains provide spiritual support to the team, patient and family as requested.
- Home medical equipment technicians provide equipment needed by the patient with personalized teaching to the patient and family.
- Volunteers become trusted companions and friends to lean on.
- Bereavement counselors and volunteers help family and friends cope with the changes and adjustments that follow a death.
- Also available, as consultants, are therapists, pharmacists, registered dietitians, massage therapists and others with special skills to meet special needs.
What does Hospice mean to me? It is about learning to live what life I have. - Mike Harvey, Gundersen Palmer Hospice patient
Insurance information & program costs
Services will be billed to Medicare/Medicaid or private insurance. Hospice care is provided to clients and families without regard to age, race, color, handicap, religion, sex, national origin, disease or ability to pay.
Gundersen Palmer Hospice accepts donations and memorials through Palmer Memorial Foundation.
Grief support group & bereavement
A Grief Support Group for anyone who has experienced the death of a loved one is available through Palmer Hospice. The group offers support and provides education on ways to cope and grow through grief and is designed to bring individuals together to share thoughts, experiences and feelings regarding their loss.
During an eight-week program, the support group meets once a week for an hour and a half in a convenient location.
I still miss those I loved who are no longer with me but I find I am grateful for having loved them. The gratitude has finally conquered the loss - Rita Mae Brown.
Speakers available
We have speakers available and welcome the opportunity to share information regarding our hospice services. Topics available include grief and bereavement; advance directives; care of the dying; volunteering; effects of terminal illness; and Medicare hospice benefits.
Volunteers
Hospice volunteers provide a break to caregivers, socialize with socially-isolated individuals, listen to those needing to talk, run errands and/or performing tasks for those unable, support those who are grieving, assist in the Hospice office and provide friendship through visits. To learn more about this volunteering opportunity, please call us.
Our mission
The primary objective of Gundersen Palmer Hospice is to enhance the quality of life for dying and grieving persons and their famiies, and the area community at large, through the provision of support care services and education.
Gundersen Palmer Hospice shall accomplish its mission by providing a service for patients medically diagnosed as terminally ill, and for their families. This service shall consist of home care, inpatient care, and bereavement follow-up. This service is designed to help east the physical, emotional, psycho-social and spirtiual discomfort with a terminal illness and death.
The sooner hospice is brought into a situation, the better. A relationship is formed between the nurse and patient and that bond really helps the patient’s overall well-being. - Martha Fulton, Gundersen Palmer Hospice RN.