A collaboration between a Dignity Health hospital and Sierra Community Palliative Care promises to be a winning combination with far-reaching results for the larger community.
In early 2024 Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial awarded Hospice of the Foothills in Nevada County, California, a generous $94,000 grant for its subsidiary Sierra Community Palliative Care.
Sierra provides invaluable care for nonterminal patients with serious or chronic conditions. It seeks to aid with symptom management, prevent unnecessary ER visits, relieve primary care doctors from dealing with high-level pain, and give patients the opportunity to voice their goals for care.
From the outset, Dignity Health and Hospice of the Foothills worked together to develop the Sierra Community Palliative Care program. The decision to start a palliative care program was daunting, so community support was invaluable, Viv Tipton, executive director of Hospice of the Foothills, told Palliative Care News.
Foundational to Sierra’s model is a collaborative approach that involves local providers. Hospital staff and oncologists refer palliative care patients to Sierra, and federally qualified health clinics offer on-call support.
Local primary-care providers also send patients to Sierra. These stakeholders joined together in discussions to create the program, and their input was instrumental during the grant application process. This pre-established network and proven model of palliative care were key to securing the grant funding. Seeing that Sierra could meet the needs of the community was central to Dignity’s decision to make the grant.
The grant arose from “a profound need to better care for community members with life-limiting illnesses,” Dignity Health Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital President and CEO Dr. Scott Neeley told Palliative Care News. “Many members of our community face significant challenges in obtaining the right care at the right time, particularly when faced with very severe illness.”
The grant enables Sierra to fund expenses that cannot be covered with current income streams and offers broader, higher-quality care to patients, according to Tipton. The funds will be used to pay for on-call services and a part-time professional with a master’s degree in social work, she said.
Sierra has forged a new partnership with Mettle Health, which offers virtual services that cover gaps in the health care system, guiding patients and families through health care crises. In addition, families can apply for limited grants that they could not otherwise access that allow for collaboration with multiple providers to address particular needs of families. The extra funds mean a greater focus on the holistic needs of the patient.
The grant also relieves financial pressure, so the organization can generate additional cost savings, Tipton indicated.
“It allows us the opportunity to dream big. The metrics help us see a difference in quality of life, fewer ER visits, and so on,” she said.
However, the grant wasn’t the only reward for the hard work of Hospice of the Foothills. Sierra’s support network made the whole effort possible.
“As challenging as it is to bring people together, take the time to do so. Identify needs, discuss with stakeholders, talk to the county, and get community buy-in,” Tipton said. “It’s awesome to find you’re not alone when out on that limb.”
