North Dakota-based Hospice of the Red River Valley has rebranded as HIA Hospice.

The new name stands for “hearts in action,” a motto the nonprofit has adopted for more than 40 years, according to HIA Hospice Executive Director Tracee Capron.

The rebranding reflects the organization’s evolution of hospice services and its growing geographic footprint, Capron indicated.

“We were one of the original 40 hospices before there was a [dedicated] Medicare benefit, and we felt it was important to honor that legacy,” Capron told Hospice News. “Our [leadership’s] dream was to provide care anywhere someone needs it. We’ve spent the last 10 years working very hard at building an infrastructure not only to be sustainable, but also to increase our relevance in the community and to our referral partners.”

Established in 1981, HIA Hospice began serving patients in the Red River Valley region of North Dakota, which spans the eastern edge of the Great Plains and includes parts of Minnesota. The hospice’s geographic footprint now reaches nearly 65,000 square miles in North Dakota and Minnesota, predominantly serving rural regions.

The nonprofit has more than 280 employees and upwards of 400 volunteers. HIA Hospice’s daily census hovers around 1,000 hospice, primary and palliative care patients.

“We’ve gradually expanded and felt the timing was right to rebrand now,” she said. “We’re trying so hard to make sure we’re the bread basket that arrives on your front porch when you need care in the home. We would like to see a hospice care setting on the western side of North Dakota as well. We are just starting, and there’s much more to do and become as we take care of our communities. We’re doing this wisely and making sure we’re being good stewards of our financial resources so that we can continue to be sustainable.”

In 2019, HIA Hospice launched a second nonprofit brand, House Calls, which provides home-based hospice and palliative care. The initiative was fueled by state-funded grant dollars to help care for underserved areas in North Dakota. HIA Hospice also operates a thrift store.

The organization earlier this year relocated its general inpatient hospice care facility Heather’s House, the first of its kind in North Dakota. HIA Hospice anticipates opening the hospice center by late July or early August this year. The facility will serve both adult and pediatric patients, with two rooms that can be converted to age-appropriate care needs.

Two keys to HIA Hospice’s sustainability have included having “hubs” across its large geographic service region and hiring locally-based professionals living within the communities they serve, Capron indicated.

Careful and cautious financial considerations have also been a significant factor in the hospice’s growth trajectory, she added.

“We’re taking care of high-cost, high-travel patient populations,” Capron said. “We average roughly $695 for each patient visit round trip, and that’s just not a sustainable model. It’s taxing because there aren’t a lot of patients, but you have to pay to care for them and operate at a loss if you don’t balance finances across the board. With Heather’s House, we’re trying to address the suffering that gets sort of normalized in rural communities that lack resources. We want to be that beacon for families, including parents with sick children.”