Hospice offers care to everyone despite insurance status
Published 6:29 pm Thursday, September 20, 2018
WEST POINT — Mark McGee, Chaplain & Bereavement Coordinator with Chattahoochee Hospice, was the guest speaker at the Thursday meeting of the West Point Rotary Club. McGee discussed efforts made by the hospice service to provide care to those seeking it in the Greater Valley Area.
Chattahoochee Hospice services Chambers, Randolph and Lee counties in Alabama and Harris and Troup counties in Georgia.
McGee, who has been working with the hospice group for the past 13 years, said that since 1983, Chattahoochee Hospice has remained locally owned and strictly non-profit.
“There are eight hospices in Chambers County and we can serve the area in a timely manner,” he said of the community-based service. “We want to take care of people.”
The chaplain added that whether a person has insurance or not is irrelevant to the hospice.
“We do not discriminate,” he said. “We take everyone and have never billed a patient or their family.”
Services at the hospice are provided through a multi-discipline approach that features nurses, CNA’s, social workers, volunteers and many others who are capable of providing what McGee called “comfort care.”
“We’re dealing with life-limiting illnesses,” he noted.
McGee added that there are a few things that patients and their families should take into account when choosing a hospice.
The first is that families can choose which hospice they want to use, as many are not alerted to this fact.
Secondly, McGee noted that any and all contributions to the hospice go toward non-funded patients.
“Our funds come from various places,” he said.
Chattahoochee Hospice is located at 6 Medical Park North in Valley. For more information, the hospice can be reached at 334-756-8043 or 1-800-770-8043.