Integrity Home Care + Hospice Expands Footprint to Kansas

Missouri-based Integrity Home Care + Hospice has expanded its hospice and post-acute rehabilitation operations to the Kansas market with the opening of a new location in Fort Scott.  

“Families with a loved one facing a serious, life-limiting illness or extensive rehabilitation will want and need to know that quality services are available,” said Amy Ford, vice president of operations for certified services at Integrity.

Integrity is a nonprofit provider of hospice care, home health care, personal care, and rehabilitation services in Springfield, Mo., with nine additional locations throughout Missouri and now Kansas.

The Fort Scott addition comes on the heels of a Nov. 2018 agreement in which Integrity took over management of Springfield, Mo-based Mercy Health System’s hospice and home health care services. Mercy operates several hospitals and clinics throughout the Midwest.

According to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Integrity’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems scores in 2018 exceeded the national average by 2% in six areas associated with patient and family experience: communication with family, pain and symptom management, emotional and spiritual support, receiving timely help, treating patient with respect, and family caregiver training.

“Our goal is to keep patients safe. We can keep them out of the hospital so they can remain wherever they call home,” Ford said.

This is the latest in a string of hospice expansions to occur in recent weeks.

VITAS Healthcare’s Inpatient Hospice Unit in late February began accepting patients in a new dedicated wing of Methodist Dallas Medical Center in Texas. The $2.8 million, 13,000-square-foot facility is expected to care for 800 hospice patients annually.

In other expansions, Glen Mills, Pa.-based Delaware Hospice began operating in Dover earlier this week. Coastal Hospice and Palliative Care in early March expanded to Cambridge, Del., serving Dorchester County. Also in Maryland, Easton-based Talbot Hospice launched a new home-based palliative care program.

In February, Tennessee-based Alive Hospice opened a facility in Franklin, Tenn., that will house a new community-wide grief counseling service as well as family caregiver training center.