Lower Cape Fear Hospice (LCFH) received the 2019 Hospice Honors Elite recognition from HEALTHCAREfirst at the recent National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s Leadership and Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C. The honor was announced by LCFH in a news release.

This recognition means that LCFH scored above the national performance score on all evaluation questions during the October 2017 to September 2018 evaluation period.
 
Each year, HEALTHCAREfirst conducts a review of the Hospice Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey, according to the release. The survey asks hospice patients’ caregivers and families about their satisfaction with hospice services and other feedback. Hospices receive a score on 24 quality indicator measures, and the review compares each individual hospice’s performance score for each measure to the national performance score based on all hospice information available.
 
Hospice organizations that score above the national HEALTHCAREfirst performance score on 20 of the 24 evaluation questions receive the Hospice Honors designation. Organizations that score above the national HEALTHCAREfirst performance score on all 24 of the evaluated questions receive the higher Hospice Honors Elite recognition.
 
LCFH’s South Carolina branch, Mercy Care, received the 2019 Hospice Honors recognition, meaning it scored above the national performance score on at least 20 of the 24 evaluation questions during the October 2017 to September 2018 evaluation period. LFCH Mercy Care serves Horry, Georgetown and Marion counties.
 
“This is wonderful news,” Gwen Whitley, president and CEO of Lower Cape Fear Hospice, said in the release. “Our team works hard every day to provide the highest level of care and support to patients and their families. It is rewarding to see that so many of our patients’ families and caregivers were pleased with the care they received, and to see the hard work of our team members recognized.”
 
LCFH serves more than 700 hospice and palliative patients a day, and more than 6,000 families per year. Through gifts from donors, the organization is able to provide $1 million in care and services not covered by a reimbursement source each year, the release stated. No one is ever refused care based on ability to pay.