Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care Launches New Inpatient Facility in Phoenix

Rosemont, Ill.-based Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care recently began construction on a new inpatient facility in Phoenix aimed at making serious illness and end-of-life care more accessible to patients and families in the area.

The 15-bed inpatient center will be located roughly 10 miles from the Seasons’ administrative office in Arizona, located near several Phoenix hospitals. The close proximity to referral sources was a key consideration to allow for easy transfers of patients from hospitals and other facilities, as well as homes.

Seasons merged with post-acute company AccentCare late last year. AccentCare is a portfolio company of the private equity firm Advent International. The combined company has made moves to provide a full continuum of home-based health care services, including hospice, palliative, home health and personal care services, with eventual plans to launch community-based high-acuity services.

Advertisement

The Phoenix facility represents a continued investment in a market that is seeing rising demand for hospice and palliative care, according to Todd Stern, CEO for Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care and executive vice chair of AccentCare.

“This is another part of our strategy to provide a continuum of services as a combined AccentCare and Seasons organization. Seasons and AccentCare have seen the need nationwide for greater access to general inpatient care,” Stern told Hospice News. “Phoenix is no different — we are seeing patients we serve in Maricopa [County] that need a higher level of support.”

Seniors 65 and older made up 10.6% of the Phoenix population in 2019, reported the U.S. Census Bureau. Arizona ranked third in the nation for hospice utilization among Medicare decedents at 58.8% in 2018, according to the National Hospice & Palliative Care Organization. Only Delaware and Utah hold higher rates at 59.4% and 60.5%, respectively.

Advertisement

Founded in 1997, Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care served more than 36,000 patients and their families during 2020. The company’s footprint spans across 19 states nationwide and includes more than 28 hospice inpatient centers, many of which are in host hospitals or facilities, according to Stern.

The facility will provide a comfortable alternative to hospitalizations for hospice-eligible patients in the Phoenix area, aiming to reach a growing number of patients in need of general inpatient care, said Stern.

“Many patients who meet the eligibility criteria to receive these services don’t get them. This can lead to poorer outcomes for the patient, their family and the health system in general,” Stern said. “Properly utilized, [general inpatient care] can help ease uncontrolled symptoms that cannot be supported in other settings, allow the family to be present without having to be caregivers, and reduce rehospitalizations or trips to the ER by patients on hospice.”

Set to open in 2022, the inpatient facility will feature private rooms for patients with amenities for families and offer comprehensive care services such as music therapy, spiritual care programs, bereavement services and counseling for family members of patients. Season’s Namaste Care, a group program for facility residents with advanced dementia, will also be onsite. The center will feature a kitchen, seating and respite areas for families and be open to visitors 24/7.

With a handful of freestanding centers, the newest facility is a “unique and new experience” for Seasons that has presented both new challenges and opportunities, according to Stern.

“Building a unit from the ground up is different from retrofitting a unit in a hospital or skilled nursing environment, and the partnerships are also unique. You have to work to set up complex pharmacy delivery, you can’t rely on a physical plant team, and there are local ordinances around parking, lighting, and noise that need to be navigated a little differently,” Stern said. “Seasons and AccentCare have made the up front investments in this infrastructure because we believe the eligible need for our unique general inpatient care delivery system exists in Phoenix.”

The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rebased payment rates for the four levels of hospice care in a final rule for Fiscal Year 2020. The rule instituted a 2.7% cut in routine home care payments and a corresponding 2.7% increase in payments for continuous home care, general inpatient care and inpatient respite care. Prior to this rebasing, payment rates for those three levels of care amounted to less than the cost of providing those types of care. CMS has maintained those rates for 2021.

While the rebasing helps to offset staff costs at the facility, the company has long strategized to expand its inpatient services, according to Stern.

“While it certainly helps, Seasons has had a strategic focus on providing general inpatient care for many years, and because of our at-scale investments in leadership and administration, we have had the ability to invest in general inpatient settings for some time,” said Stern. “The newer rates will help us offset costs and ensure we have the best trained staff but the community need has always been there.”

Photo courtesy of Seasons Hospice & Palliative Care.

Companies featured in this article:

, ,