Affinity Hospice Expands with Alabama De Novo

Affinity Hospice, headquartered in Birmingham, Ala., has opened a new location in its home state. Staff at the facility are making smooth transitions into hospice care a priority for their first year in operation.

The new office is located at the Hillside Office Plaza, a growing medical community space in Alabaster, Ala. Through the location, Affinity Hospice provides hospice and palliative care in the home, at a hospital or at long-term residential facilities.

The center comes with a goal to ease transitions into end-of-life care for patients and their families, according to Jeff Greer, office manager of Affinity’s new location.

“We offer end-of-life care to patients and their families, and try to make it as comfortable as possible for those who are transitioning at the end of life,” said Greer in a recent announcement. “We have social workers that attend to emotional and psychological needs. We have chaplains that attend to spiritual needs of those who are transitioning and their families.”

Affinity Hospice has provided care for more than 30 years and operates 11 other hospice locations across Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and South Carolina.

Hospice utilization among Medicare descendents in Alabama reached 47.4% in 2018, falling slightly under the national average of 50.3% that year, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

Demographic tailwinds are fueling growing need for hospice care in the Yellowhammer State. Currently, seniors represent 17.3% of Alabama’s overall population, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. Adults 65 and older make up 12% of Alabaster’s population alone, according to census statistics.

Statewide this age group is expected to swell to 1.2 million by 2040, up from 721,166 in 2013, according to data from The University of Alabama Culverhouse College of Commerce’s Center for Business and Economic Research.

Affinity Hospice employs more than 150 staff. The company is set to hold a job fair later this month to recruit more nursing staff, recently putting out the call on their social media.

More than half of cancer decedents in Alabama received hospice care from 165 providers from 2002 to 2005, according to research from the U.S. National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health. Researchers indicated that nearly two-thirds of the state’s counties contain at least 1 hospice.