Hillside Home Care and Hospice at Marshfield Medical Center-Beaver Dam

Hospice is a patient-centered, family-oriented approach to care for anyone with a life-limiting illness. The core belief of hospice is that each of us has the right to die pain-free and with dignity. Our focus is on caring, not curing.

Hospice care services offered for patients and family members include:

• An interdisciplinary hospice team that develops a plan of care to meet the needs and provide a support system for each patient and family.
• A focus on quality of life, recognizing the need to support the emotional, spiritual, and practical needs as well as medical and physical needs.
• When needed and appropriate, Hillside Hospice provides certain treatments with the goal of comfort and quality of life.
• A registered nurse is on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week to answer questions, direct the family on actions to take, and if necessary, visit for care. Hospice, however, does not provide caregivers to stay in the home 24 hours a day.

Hillside Home Care helps you live as safely and as independently as possible in your home. We teach patients and caregivers about their health condition and how to manage any treatments or medications. Our registered nurses work with your physician to tailor treatment plans and are on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If the service or equipment you require is not available through our program, we can refer you to another program in Dodge County for additional support.

We help people who:

• Are newly home from the hospital
• Have an illness, chronic disease or are recovering from an accident and would benefit from skilled care or teaching
• Need physical, occupational or speech therapy
• Require special medical equipment at home and need education on its use
• Are undergoing special treatment such as chemotherapy

Each home health care patient has unique needs and often combinations of the following services are used to meet those needs:

• Skilled nursing care
• Physical therapy
• Occupational therapy
• Respiratory therapy
• IV therapy
• Wound & ostomy care

A team of specialists partners with a patient and their family and provider to provide a wide range of hospice services. This includes:

• The patient's provider
• Hospice medical director
• Registered nurses
• Social workers
• Certified nursing assistants
• Hospice chaplain
• Volunteer coordinator
• Bereavement coordinator
• Trained volunteers

A variety of specialists work together to offer a broad range of home health services including:

• Skilled nursing
• Certified nursing assistants
• Physical therapists
• Occupational therapists
• Speech therapists

A registered nurse or physical therapist will conduct a preliminary evaluation of the types of services needed in your home. A team of professionals, together with your family members, physicians and other health care professionals, will work to develop a care plan.

Payment for home care and hospice

Your services from Hillside Home Care and Hospice may be covered by Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance or personal payments.

Insurance coverage varies, and our staff will work with you to identify your insurance coverage and coordinate services within your financial resources.

If you have no insurance, Hillside will work with you to see if you qualify for help from the BDCH Foundation, Inc.

For more information, call 920-887-4050.

Our vision

Our vision is to be the home care and hospice agency of choice by providing unprecedented quality, safety and service to clients in their homes.

Our Philosophy

We are dedicated to delivering the best possible care. We work closely with your physician to meet your specific needs and wishes. We believe that when possible, individuals would choose to remain at home.

We are committed to helping individuals achieve this goal for as long as safely possible. We believe in the value of knowledge and will educate clients and their families on their disease and necessary care, empowering them to be active participants in their care.

We believe in the innate value of life from birth until death, recognizing that life is a journey.

We are committed to supporting clients and families on that journey, focusing on quality of life throughout the journey.

We believe that there is hope in every moment of life: hope for living well, growing toward wholeness in yourself and your family, and dying pain-free and in peace.

Through the “We Honor Veterans” program, hospice veterans have the opportunity to share their stories, express feelings and reach out to other veterans.

In a special pinning ceremony, we honor the veteran’s service and present a pin and certificate in recognition of their sacrifice.

Vet-to-Vet Program

Veteran volunteers are essential to the delivery of quality hospice care. Veterans are part of a distinct culture with their own common language, codes of conduct and experience. This strong bond and camaraderie are supportive for volunteers and hospice veterans.

Volunteers support hospice veterans through:

• Listening, reminiscing and sharing life stories with veteran patients.
• Educate and assist patients regarding veteran benefits.
• Participate in pinning ceremonies or distribute certificates for Veterans Day and other recognition events.
• Assist in replacing lost medals.

Hillside Hospice offers free grief services to anyone who has experienced a loss. Our trained grief-support professionals can provide resources, support and compassionate listening as you go through your grief journey.

Hillside Grief Support Group hosts four annual sessions. The group meets once a week during a seven-week session. Group leaders, with special training in working with grief, provide support and encouragement, to help members express their feelings.

Anyone who has lost a friend, family member or loved one is encouraged to join the group. All who are grieving are welcome, no matter how long ago the loss occurred. For more information, contact Dennis Richards, hospice chaplain and bereavement counselor, at 920-887-5983 or richards.dennis@marshfieldclinic.org.

Volunteers are trained in areas of the hospice philosophy of palliative care, communication, listening skills, belief systems and cultural differences, bereavement, safety and confidentiality, and care of the dying person.

Training can be individualized to the applicant's needs. We offer in-person or self-paced training that can be completed primarily at home.

Hospice volunteers commit to two to four hours per week of service.

Hospice volunteers provide many services including:

• Companionship to the patient, and respite to allow the caregiver time away from the home.
• Errands such as housekeeping, shopping, etc.
• Assisting clients with writing or creating a legacy journal or photo album.
• Clerical support in the office.
• Assisting with special hospice events.

To learn more or volunteer, call our hospice volunteer specialist at 920-887-4185.

Our goal is to always provide the best care and each staff member is honored to share in caring for patients. We do not expect any special gifts or thanks in return, and we do not allow staff to take gifts from clients or families.

We do, however, accept donations for our program for the good of future clients and their families. If you wish to say “great job” to a staff member who cared for you, make a donation in honor of that person to Hillside Home Care or to the BDCH Foundation, Inc.

To learn more, visit BDCH Foundation.