The future of hospice and home care services in Juneau remains in limbo after Catholic Community Service ceased operating its program Wednesday after 20 years, but Bartlett Regional Hospital’s board of directors is expected at its meeting Tuesday to discuss options for providing such care, according to officials at both agencies.
CCS shut its program down due to lack of staff, resulting largely from the high cost of providers during a nationwide shortage resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The program stopped accepting new patients at the beginning of September, and had 17 home health and two hospice patients as of last week, who all have primary care providers they were referred to develop individual care plans.
CCS alerted city officials to the staffing crisis in August, and have also been in discussions with Bartlett and SEARHC about taking over some or all services formerly provided. At present the primary discussions are with Bartlett, which already provides some related services, according to Erin Walker-Tolles, executive director of Catholic Community Services in Juneau,
”We are just going through the process and no concrete decisions are on the record yet,” she wrote in an email Friday.
Erin Hardin, a Bartlett spokesperson, stated in an email an immediate handoff of services to the hospital wasn’t a realistic expectation.
“Transition of any program takes time,” she wrote. “I expect this will be a topic of discussion at next Tuesday night’s hospital board meeting.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com
