Ohio Veterans Home, Sandusky
The Ohio Veterans Home in Sandusky and Stein Hospice have been working together for years, forging a model partnership which benefits veterans and their families.
In 1994 Stein Hospice, a not-for-profit agency based in Sandusky, began caring for patients at the Sandusky facility. Stein’s relationship with the home was strengthened in 2005 when Ohio joined a veterans’ end-of-life initiative called the National Hospice-Veteran Partnership Program, or HVP. The program is dedicated to increasing veterans’ access to hospice and palliative care.
Stein Hospice was one of the first to join the Ohio partnership, which now includes 78 organizations, said Kathy Hayes, co-chair of Ohio’s Hospice-Veteran Partnership.
“Stein Hospice is a model program, it’s an example of what can be done,” Hayes said.
Stein staff are on the grounds of the Ohio Veterans Home and available around the clock to care for patients and support their families.
Stein’s comprehensive team focuses on all aspects of dying, including the specific issues that pertain to veterans. Staff is well versed on funeral and other benefits that veterans and their families are eligible for. Three bereavement counselors have been trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, a mental health therapy especially beneficial to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.
While Stein physicians and nurses manage the patients’ physical pain, social workers, chaplains and counselors help with the emotional and spiritual discomfort. Staff members are trained to provide massage, Reiki, guided imagery and other comfort cares.
Volunteers take patients for walks around the grounds and spend time reading and reminiscing with them. And no Stein Hospice patient dies alone. When death is imminent, continuous care nurses stay by their bedside to manage pain and support the family.
Stein Hospice president and CEO Jan Bucholz has presented information about Stein’s veteran program at national conferences. She tells the audience that what sets Stein apart from other hospices caring for veterans is its intensity and depth of services. “We have an entire team that serves OVH,” she said.
On an average day, Stein cares for about 80 veterans at the Ohio Veterans Home in Sandusky. The number of patients served by Stein continues to grow, mainly because of word of mouth. A veteran or a family member notices the excellent level of care Stein is delivering down the hall for another patient and asks for information.
Phyllis Kerlin, now an OVH volunteer, said she brags about Stein a lot. Her husband Robert, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, was a Stein patient at the Sandusky home for almost a year. Stein nurses and aides were in his room almost every day, monitoring Robert’s eating, rubbing his back with lotion, and helping him brush his teeth.
“I knew if I needed anything, they’d be there,” she said. “They were all very lovely people.”
Stein’s commitment to the veterans and their families extends beyond the walls of OVH.
One of the military programs sponsored by Stein is “In It Together.” Stein Hospice receptionist Robin Baum, whose son is in the military, and Rev. Charles Odums, a Stein chaplain and parent of a slain soldier, started the support group to comfort and assist families with loved ones who are deployed.
The group meets the first Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. and is open to all area families. The meeting is held at the American Legion on Hayes Avenue in Sandusky.
In another effort to reach out to military families, Stein’s bereavement department started a support group called “Club USA.” The club is for children ages 7 to 12 years old and meets for 11 weeks. That program is also free and open to all.
Jan Bucholz said Stein’s services and programs geared to veterans are constantly evolving. “We’re always looking at ways to support veterans and their families,” she said.
Ohio Veterans Home, Georgetown
Stein Hospice opened a new 22-bed hospice unit on January 27, 2011 at the Ohio Veterans Home in Georgetown, located in southwest Ohio. The Georgetown home is the first Veterans Home in the country offering hospice services in a designated, in-house unit.
This new program is a public-private partnership between Stein Hospice and the Ohio Department of Veterans Services.
Initially the hospice will create 15 full-time equivalent and four part-time jobs. The workforce is slated to double as the number of hospice patients increases. “We are pleased to partner with Stein Hospice to provide a new level of specialized care to our veterans and to create quality, new jobs in the Georgetown area,” said Thomas N. Moe, Director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services. “We are proud to offer the comfort and professionalism of hospice care to our veterans and their families in the first dedicated unit of its kind in the country.”
Stein Hospice was selected to enter into this unique public-private partnership because of its well-established hospice service to Veterans at the state’s other Veterans Home in Sandusky. Rather than a designated area, Sandusky hospice patients are located throughout the home and are cared for by the on-site Stein staff, available around the clock.
“We have been privileged to work in partnership with the Sandusky Ohio Veterans Home to serve the men and women who so proudly served our country. The partnership with the Georgetown Ohio Veterans Home and Stein Hospice represents an innovative public-private collaborative that was developed to benefit the Veterans in our state,” said Jan Bucholz, president and chief executive officer of Stein Hospice.
The Ohio Veterans Homes in Sandusky and Georgetown are state-operated nursing homes open to honorably discharged Veterans who have been Ohio residents for at least one year during his or her lifetime. The Veteran must be infirm or disabled and incapable of earning a living. The new hospice in Georgetown will accept any eligible Veteran in Ohio who qualifies for hospice care, not just residents of the Ohio Veterans Home. Both homes offer standard nursing home care as well as special care for Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia.
The Sandusky home provides 427 nursing home beds and an additional 293 independent living beds, while Georgetown offers 168 nursing home beds. Both homes were recognized in 2010 by the Ohio Department of Health for higher-than-average family member satisfaction, and by the US Department of Veterans Affairs for their consistently high level of care.