One of our families was kind enough to share her experience of having her mother in our care a few years ago. We believe this may be helpful to patients and their families who are considering hospice:  My mom was a resident at NHC nursing home for 5 years, and I recognized that she was […]

On a sweltering day at the end of June, Mark Smith, Caris Representative of our Chattanooga office walked into NHC Healthcare Chattanooga, smiling and greeting each person he saw. Everyone knew him on a first name basis, and a few pulled him aside to talk about patients who needed additional support.  The Caris Healthcare relationship […]

Over the years, we have heard countless families decline hospice care or pain relief measures because they were afraid it would hasten death. Individuals may have seen patients receive morphine and pass away days, or even hours later at some point in their lives. This is simply a case of correlation verses causation. Meaning that […]

Caris Healthcare Milan team met Sebastian when he was 2 and a half months old, he had a heart full of courage, and an unbreakable spirit, but his little body faced challenges right from the start. Sebastian was diagnosed with life-limiting conditions and doctors prepared his family for the difficult journey ahead. With heavy hearts, […]

Jennifer Hughes looks back on her childhood fondly. She grew up in Honaker, Virginia where she walked everywhere- to church, school, and even her first job. But it had not been easy. Her father died in the coal mine when she was nine years old, and her mother was diagnosed with cancer when she was […]

Natalie Hernandez, Administrator and Gina Carnahan, Social Worker for our Johnson City office during a recent memorial for grieving families. At the age of 2, Gina Carnahan began asking her mother to read the obituaries from the newspaper so that she could pray for the people being memorialized. While she intended to major in forensic […]

In celebration of National Hospice and Palliative Care month, we would like to share a bit of history behind the current care we provide.   The word “hospice” derives from the Latin word hospes which means both guest and host. The first instances of caring for the sick and dying were documented in Malta as women […]

Our chaplains provide vital support to both patients and their loved ones during their time with us. As we approach Spiritual Care Week, we took a moment to ask our chaplain team what this work meant to them. Bill Myers of our Nashville office shared, “Being a Hospice Chaplain, to me, is a calling more […]

For patients battling life-limiting conditions, there may come a time when the curative treatments are no longer showing progress, and a physician advises the family to consider hospice. This conversation is most likely to be initiated when the physician believes the patient may have 6 months to live.  Hospice is a type of healthcare which […]

Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Since 2000, deaths from dementia rose by 89% (alz.org). Dementia is one of the most feared diseases. As a healthcare community, what do we do to combat these fears and ease this anxiety? Caris Healthcare invited Annette Mendola PHD, Director of Clinical Ethics […]