When Douw Meyers wanted to spend his last months at home in South Bristol with his family by his side, Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice managed his symptoms and made sure he was comfortable.

Just as importantly, they gave his wife, Tish Meyers, the support she needed so she could spend that time with her husband without being overwhelmed by his medical care.

“I am able to be calm, I am able to be helpful for my husband, to be here for him because they are here for me,” said Tish, two weeks before her husband passed away. “Miles and St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice providers are “extraordinary.”

A commitment to patients and their families is what drives Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice providers to not only provide the best care possible for every patient, but also to continually learn more about their profession.

Over the past year, every nurse in the hospice team at Miles & St. Andrews Home Health & Hospice has become certified in hospice care, including Hospice Coordinator Holly Miller. Recently, Dr. Rob Hunold, co-director of Hospice with Dr. John Dickens, joined them, completing a process that included overseeing the hospice care of 80 patients, 500 hours of hospice care and 12 hours of exams.

Dr. Hunold’s commitment to hospice care grows out of both personal experience and a desire to make care more patient-driven.

“There is a movement out there that says, ‘We would like to listen to patients’ plans and desires. We want to reduce re-admissions (to hospitals),” Hunold said. “We want to improve patient satisfaction.”

Hospice care meets all of those objectives.

“Nowhere else in health care do we ask a patient ‘What is your plan?’ Nowhere do we ask that question and then use that plan to determine everything that happens after that point,” Hunold said.

“Many people think of hospice as care for people who are dying, but the focus is actually on how people want to spend the rest of their life. What is your plan for your life? How are you going to live your life? Let us use the tools that we have to ensure that the plan happens.”

Helping people make the most out of life is something that Dr. Hunold began thinking about before he even decided to go to medical school.

While he was still a U.S. Navy pilot, Dr. Hunold’s heart stopped beating, and while he was resuscitated quickly, the experience caused him to think differently about the nature of health and happiness.

Defining quality of life can be different for each hospice patient, but for the vast majority, it means living out their life at home.

For hospice providers, making that possible means solving problems that are often unique.

One woman, who had a progressive neurological disease, wanted to spend one final summer in Maine where she had summered as a child and where she and her husband owned a home overlooking a river.

Making her wishes possible required every tool available to the hospice team, both medical and non medical.

The staff had to control her pain while also allowing her to be lucid, so she could truly spend time with the people she loved. Hospital equipment, including a special bed and a respirator were necessary and hospice team members met with local emergency medical service providers to make sure the ambulance staff understood the woman’s wishes.

In the end, the effort was a success not just because the team was able to meet the goals of the patient with clinical care but because they were able to provide the necessary support so the patient, her husband and children could truly be together and live that summer as a family.