Debbie Robson, Executive Director of Hospice Care of the West, elected to California Hospice and Palliative Care Association Board of Directors Region 6.

Debbie Robson, the renowned innovative Executive Director of Hospice Care of the West, is elected to the Board of Directors of California Hospice and Palliative Care Association (CHAPCA). She will represent Region 6 that encompasses hospice organizations in Los Angeles, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The mission of CHAPCA is to promote and strengthen the delivery of hospice care for patients with life-limiting illnesses and their families through education and advocacy.

“I’m honored by the opportunity to be a unifying voice for the hospices in our region,” said Robson. “I look forward to continuing the mission of CHAPCA to educate the community about the benefits of hospice and innovating hospice care from the front lines. I hope to continue to change the public conversation about hospice from dying to celebrating life.”

Robson has more than 20 years experience in end-of-life care that began as a hospice and home health nurse. Under Robson’s leadership, Hospice Care of the West received the Outstanding Program Achievement Award given by the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association to an innovative hospice program that can an example for the hospice community in 2012. Robson was also honored with SeniorServ’s “Executive Director of the Year” receiving the Senior Care Hero Award in 2012.

“We’re excited to welcome Debbie to the Board of Directors,” Susan Negreen, President of CHAPCA, said. “Her experience and vision will strengthen our mission at CHAPCA. And I’d like to congratulate her on the vote of confidence from the hospice community.”

With Robson at the helm, Hospice Care of the West has risen to become a premier-award-winning hospice providing patients and their families with exceptional care and volunteer programs that give life review videos, last wish celebrations and vigil volunteers to ensure that end of life is a meaningful and memorable journey. The programs at Hospice Care of the West go above the required Medicare benefit to transform a stage of life that has been historically alienating into a time to honor a patient’s life with the family, community and future generations. In 2011, Robson collaborated with Denise Carson, author of the book Parting Ways, to launch an online resource OurLifeCelebrations.com to educate patients, families and health care providers about hospice and new ways to approach, prepare for, and celebrate life’s final journey.

Robson is spreading the mission of celebrating life with Community Reminiscing Corners that invite healthy seniors at assisted living facilities and senior centers to record their wisdom on video and learn about the value of hospice care. Internally, Robson launched Reminiscing Corners for her staff to sit down with veteran life story documentary filmmaker, Jay Gianukos, to share their wisdom and life stories. The Reminiscing Corner videos are then played at the bi-monthly Celebration!, a gathering of the entire hospice team

to celebrate each other and remember the patients who they have cared for and passed on. Celebration is a gathering for reflection and renewal to strengthen and support the hospice team in providing the best care to their patients and honoring their life’s journey. Catch a glimpse of Celebration here.

Prior to Hospice Care of the West, Robson worked as a Regional Hospice Consultant at Heartland Hospice. She also served as the Director of Hospice for St. Joseph Hospice in Orange, Calif. Robson completed her Bachelors of Science in Nursing and Masters in Business Administration in Healthcare Management.

Robson will begin her newly elected position on the Board of Directors of CHAPCA immediately and will serve for three years. She hopes to unite the hospices in a common goal to raise awareness about hospice so patients and their families can receive hospice relief sooner in their journey.

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Denise Carson, author of the book Parting Ways, accepts the Outstanding Program Achievement Award at the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association Awards Reception in Santa

Congratulations to Hospice Care of the West for winning the Outstanding Program Achievement Award given by the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association (CHAPCA). The award recognizes an innovative program that stands as a model for other hospices and end-of-life care providers. CHAPCA is dedicated to promoting and strengthening the delivery of hospice care for terminally ill patients and their families through education and advocacy.

At the CHAPCA Awards Ceremony in Santa Clara, I stepped up to receive the award honoring our mission to celebrate the lives of hospice patients. The inscription on the award read: Denise Carson and Hospice Care of the West Outstanding Program Achievement for Advancing End-of-Life Care. I gave an acceptance speech alongside Debbie Robson, Executive Director of Hospice Care of the West. Many doctors, nurses, social workers and volunteer coordinators from other hospices came up after the ceremony to congratulate us and thank me for the dedication to spreading the word about hospice to the public. They were so inspired and loved what I said in my speech about our commitment to changing the conversation about hospice from dying to living and celebrating life.

From conception to the birth of this blog, OurLifeCelebrations.com, I envisioned that we could be a resource for the community and beacon for other hospices on how to bring intimacy, preparation, participation and celebration to a stage of life that has been alienated for over a century now. This dream and vision is beginning to be realized. I’m so grateful to CHAPCA for this award and the inspiration my parents gave me in their own end of life journeys. I want to thank Debbie Robson, fearless leader at Hospice Care of the West, who believed in the vision of this blog, the team at Hospice Care of the West for carrying out this mission in their everyday interactions with their patients, and Donna Miller who started the Life Review Video Program that attracted me to Hospice Care of the West while I was writing my book, Parting Ways.

Today, we have brought this mission home into the Hospice Care of the West community with Reminiscing Corners to video record members of the hospice team i.e. nurses, social workers, spiritual care coordinators, home health aides and office support staff sharing their life wisdom. We play these videos at our bi-monthly Celebration! Thank you to Jay Gianukos, our resident life story documentary filmmaker who makes these Reminiscing Corners and Celebrations magic. The goal is to renew and invigorate the team in caring everyday for hospice patients. We take this mission beyond on our walls by inviting folks at seniors centers to sit at our Reminiscing Corners with our documentary filmmaker to preserve their life stories.

Below is the story that went out in the CHAPCA Trendsetters Newsletter about the Award:

The Award for Outstanding Program Achievement was created in 2004 to recognize a program or agency

that has created and implemented an innovative program in end of life care. This year was a bit different in that the award honored an individual and a hospice agency that made an impact on their community. The recipients for 2012 are Denise Carson, a columnist for the Orange County Register, and author of Parting Ways: New Rituals and Celebrations of Life’s Passing and Hospice Care of the West, represented by Debbie Robson, Executive Director.

Denise became familiar with Hospice Care of the West when researching her book. This led to a collaboration that has raised the Hospice Care of the West’s profile in the community, increased their census, and most important, led to improved and enhanced end of life experience for their patients.

After the book was published, Denise went to the hospice and suggested the creation of a blog that would serve as an online resource for the community. Working together with hospice staff, Our Celebration of Life (now Our Life Celebrations) was born in 2011. The blog features the agency’s life review project, along with many other innovative programs developed by the hospice. These programs include their organization of high school students called Dream Catchers who make last wishes come true for hospice patients, memory pillows created by volunteer seamstresses made out of patients clothes for their bereaved families and sitting vigils to assure patients do not die alone. In addition to the blog, Denise has been involved with creating a bi-monthly gathering of employees called Celebration, and she is currently designing a series of classes to educate the community on what is hospice, how to be a compassionate companion, how to record a life interview, how to create end of life plans and a lasting legacy. These programs will not only be available in the community, but also online.

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Lights, Camera, Action! Yes, we filmed a commercial with a real hospice patient, Arline Perrizo at 95 years old, her daughter, Mary, and her team of “hospice angels” from Hospice Care of the West in Orange County, Calif. Arline is star. Check out the commercial. It’s now airing. Thank you Arline and Mary! Like a real movie star, Arline started the day in hair and make-up with professional stylist and hospice volunteer, Nancy Johnson.

Jay Gianukos, the director of the commercial, filmed Arline in the spotlight. She basked in all of the attention.She then joined me on the film set equipped with lights, video cameras, sound equipment and a crew in her living room. I interviewed Arline, who was an elementary school teacher and by doing this commercial she had a chance to teach one last time. This lesson would take place on a film set instead of her classroom and her students would be our community in need of learning how much hospice benefited her life and her daughter’s. Mary wanted her mother to stay at home but her mother had taken a bad fall that landed her in hospital. When she was discharged, Hospice Care of the West came on to help Mary care for her Mom and provide a safety net of support that has brought them so much relief and peace.

Hospice is a team approach to end-of-life care in the home, or wherever a patient calls home, for the patient with a life expectancy of six months or less to live. Mary and Arline have support from a nurse, social worker, spiritual care counselor, home health aid and volunteer. Read more about hospice care here. Also, the volunteer services at Hospice Care of the West brought Mary and Arlene so much joy. Shannon Sirovy, the director of volunteer services at Hospice Care of the West, had already filmed a life review video of Arlene reminiscing about her life that she can now pass on her wisdom and legacy of memories to her children and grandchildren. The life review video is a gift from Hospice Care of the West created with volunteer hours of a life review interview that is then edited with family pictures and music. Read more about life review video here.

Thank you Arline and Mary for sharing your experiences with us and for other families to learn the benefits to choosing hospice that focuses on comfort care. Many people don’t realize that you have a choice in hospice. And choosing the right team to care for you in the most vulnerable hour is vital to living with peace and comfort even when time is limited. My most favorite moment of the commercial shoot was when Dave Boyle, the spiritual care coordinator, sat down with Arline and Mary. He asked if he could read a passage from the Bible and Arlene agreed. Then he placed his hand gently on Arline’s hand and said, “You can read it with me, if you know it.” And in an instant, a peace fell over the room as Dave read the 23^rd Psalm and Arline joined him. After he asked if she wanted him to pray for her, and she smiled “yes” and sighed relief. I witnessed each of the team members Cheryl, the nurse, Angela, the social worker, Dave and Shannon had such a gift to give and together surround them with everything that they need to make this journey that is often wrenching for families instead be a time of peace, joy and reflection.

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On a sunny September morning, Debbie Robson, Executive Director of the Hospice Care of the West, and I swung open the doors and welcomed each member of the hospice team to the Celebration! We invited each person to write the name of someone they want to remember on a stone and lay it on the table set up like an alter. Check out the video that captures the spirit of the event!

One of the hospice home health aides said to me as she picked up a stone, “There are so many I want to remember.” I smiled realizing that is one of the reasons we created this ritual to help these folks on the front lines of end-of-life care to pause and reflect on patients they cared for in the last days of life. This is a truly honorable work and must be marked with ritual, celebration what I now deem a tradition for the hospice.

As I met the 90-member strong team in the hall, I greeted them and Deb shared good news of the census jumping up to its peak after our first Celebration! Then I interjected saying we have a lot to celebrate announcing the news of receiving Outstanding Program Achievement Award honored by the California Hospice and Palliative Care Association (CHAPCA). Everyone in the room gasped in unison! It was so fantastic to see.

I then asked each one to think about one word that describes you. Gemma Heffernan, our veteran social worker, suggested that “resilient” described her best. Since I wrote her living eulogy, I agreed. Then I asked them each to share that word with the person next to them. I could feel the invigoration in the room as each person celebrated his or her own soul. The aim for Celebration is renew the spirit so we can continue our mission of providing exceptional end-of-life care and understand intuitively how to celebrate the lives of our patients.

At the first Celebration, our resident documentary filmmaker, Jay Gianukos filmed some the nurses in a Reminiscing Corner. We played the video at the Celebration. It was a remarkable tribute to the 32 nurses that blanket Orange County and Los Angeles County providing exceptional hospice care. See the video below.

I then read a living eulogy about Dave Boyle, the resident spiritual care coordinator. I’ve known Dave for about six years now, but our interview for the living eulogy opened a window into his soul that I had never known about until now. I had the honor of sharing that personal triumph with the hospice team to celebrate his life. Click here to read his eulogy

The Celebration! Program of events for #2 Celebration for Hospice Care of the West on September 19, 2012.

I opened the microphone up to the team. It was electric in the room as nurses stood to thank home health aides, and hospice consultants shined the spotlight on the office support staff, spiritual care coordinators shared stories of seeing such wonderful care given by the nurses. The microphone just rotated around the room filled with praise as they empowered and thanked each other for the amazing teamwork. I want to especially thank Deb Patricio, Director of Clinical Care, for reading the letters that patients’ families had written about the care nurses gave to their mother or father in the final days of life. These were so moving and energizing. I also want to thank Heidi Gonzalez, Hospice Consultant, for sharing the unbelievably beautiful story of the sailor who wished to die on his boat with accompanied by his wife and dog. The hospital didn’t want to release this patient to go home because they knew he would not make it. Yet, he and his wife wanted to try. Heidi and the team at Hospice Care of the West helped him get off of the machines at the hospital, where he was expected to die and board an ambulance who drove him to the dock in Long Beach. He boarded his boat safe and sound. Not too long after, took his last breath of life on his boat, in the company of his wife and dog just as he wished. As tears poured from my eyes and many others in the hall, I told Heidi and the team that story exemplifies why we do what

we do to make those last wishes come true for patients. These stories remind us why we wake up every day and continue to thrive to make life better for our patients. I’m so grateful to the team for our second, very successful Celebration!

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Boyd Hendrickson, Skilled Healthcare CEO, (right), Roland Rapp and Debbie Robson, Hospice Care of the West Executive Director, celebrate her Senior Care Hero Award for Executive Director of the Year honor.

Congratulations Debbie Robson for receiving the Senior Care Hero Award! You are so deserving of the “champion” spotlight for seniors. Bravo!! Your leadership as Executive Director at Hospice Care of the West is now recognized beyond our walls. Each day, you transform the lives of your patients and inspire the team at Hospice Care of the West to celebrate life. I’m honored to work alongside you in our mission. I feel like this mission is truly a movement set in motion by you believing in our vision to become a shining beacon for changing how seniors

live in life’s final frontier.

The Senior Care Hero Awards at the Presidential Nixon Library was reminiscent of the Oscars night with a red carpet lit up by the magnificent lives dedicated to senior care.  It’s a fitting event as we are in the midst of an End-of-Life Revolution. Individuals, families and communities are searching for new ways to make  this stage of life a grand finale.

Below is a recap from Boyd Hendrickson, CEO of Skilled Healthcare.

I am pleased to announce that Debbie Robson, Executive Director of Hospice Care of the West, was the recipient of the Outstanding Executive Director of the Year. Deb made it through three tiers of voting. The first round was the People’s Choice, and Deb was chosen by popular vote. The second round of voting was by the Senior Care Hero Awards Council of Advisors which narrowed each field. The third and final round of voting was conducted by the Academy of Leaders. Deb received her award the evening of September 9 in the presence of her husband Mark, Hospice Care of the West’s Medical Director, Dr. Jorge Rivero (who himself was a nominee for Outstanding Physician and made it to the final tier), Boyd Hendrickson, Dev Ghose, Roland Rapp, and an intimate gathering of about 400 other attendees.

 The Senior Care Hero Awards are driven by Community SeniorServ, Inc. Community SeniorServ is a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving as an advocate for Orange County’s older adults. This organization is committed to providing comprehensive services essential to their well-being and independence and provides vital safety net services to more than 11,000 senior citizens a year. Their goal is to ensure sustainability to meet the growing demand for senior services and to reduce dependency on government funding. Community SeniorServ is one of the nation’s largest elderly nutrition programs and a respected leader in the national aging network preparing and serving over 1.5 million meals a year to seniors at home and at 27 nutrition centers. That’s over 5,000 meals every day.

Their mission is simple: To improve the quality of life for older adults, persons with disabilities, and their families by creating a safety net of health, nutrition, and supportive services designed to enhance their independence, well being, and dignity.

Congratulations, Deb, and thank you for making a difference!

 Boyd Hendrickson

During her acceptance speech, Debbie reflected on her mother’s guidance that led her where she is today.  As a former hospice nurse turned executive director, Debbie is no stranger to what it takes day to day to care for our ailing parents, but beyond that she knows taking time out to create memories can often shift how we spend time at the bedside. At Hospice Care of the West, we are giving seniors the recipes and inspirations on this blog. Our programs such as the Life Review Video bring families together to record a last conversation about wisdom, life lessons and hopes and dreams to pass on the to next generations. We are teaching people that you don’t need to wait to the end to celebrate one’s life, you can do it today, right now.

We’ve built a rich resource of authentic stories about our patients that we hope one day will be the norm rather than the exception. With Debbie Robson at the helm of Hospice Care of the West, I believe this is possible. We have created the kind of place that can inspire seniors to live richly even in their most vulnerable stage of life. On our blog are examples from our 105-year-old patient Bessie who courageously flew in the big balloon weeks before her last breath to Dee J. who celebrated his 100 years of life with 200 of his closest friends and family after he entered hospice.

My nomination for Debbie Robson is below. Thank you for believing in our mission!

Why should this person be nominated? What makes nominee unique; why should he or she be selected as the winner of this category? ?Debbie Robson, Executive Director, has created a hospice that is a beacon for all other hospices and health care professionals on how we can change this stage of life for seniors into a time when families and communities can come together to celebrate their lives, wisdom and legacies. Click here to see what makes Hospice Care of the West exceptional

Within the hospice, we have launched Reminiscing Corners that bring together members of the hospice team to share their wisdom and life stories with a documentary filmmaker, so that we’re not only celebrating the lives of our patients but also each other. Check out the Reminiscing Corner spotlighting and celebrating the lives of our social workers. Click here Social Workers Reminiscing Corner. 

Reminiscing Corner videos are played at an event we call Celebration that brings together the entire hospice team to reflect, renew and celebrate life. Check Debbie at this Reminiscing Corner

Deb is spearheading a movement at Hospice Care of the West that will change how we care for seniors and their families. We invite seniors from the community to Reminiscing Corners to teach the value of recording your wisdom and passing on your hopes and dreams to the next generation. This shift in how we approach end of life brings

meaning, value, hope, dignity and for this we must say thank you to Deb for being an inspirational, innovative leader at Hospice Care of the West.

What is this nominee’s involvement in senior care or senior issues? ?Inspiring us to think differently about how we live in life’s last chapter! As Executive Director of Hospice Care of the West, Debbie Robson has embraced the philosophy that seniors must celebrate their lives and preserve their legacy of memories to pass on to the next generation. We have a blog called OurLifeCelebrations.com that is a resource for the community to be inspired to think differently about how to rewrite how we live in life’s last chapter. Hospice Care of the West has a volunteer life review video program headed by a veteran life story documentary filmmaker who video records interviews with the patient so he or she can pass on wisdom to the next generation. Check out a Life Review

Research shows one of the biggest assaults on one’s dignity at the end of life is that nothing of who or what I am will live on after I die. These life review interviews edited with music and photos provide the patient with something tangible to give as gift to their family in a time of life that often feels wrenching. At Hospice Care of the West, we also have a Dream Catchers program that connects volunteer high school students who make last wishes come true for hospice patients. We have a vigil volunteer program that matches volunteers to hold hands with hospice patients at the end to ensure no one dies alone. These programs create an exceptional experience for patients and their families on the end of life journey. Not only do they change the way the family sees the senior but also the community, because these programs create intergenerational conversations and connections that uplift our seniors to be dignified and celebrated in often their most vulnerable hour.

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On local Channel 6 News, Patty Mouton, family member of a patient with Alzheimer’s disease, shares her story of choices and support received from Hospice Care of the West,

at a challenging period in her mother-in-law’s life. Initially, she was shocke

d when the doctor suggested hospice, but in hindsight she realized hospice care was the right choice for her mother-in-law at that stage of her journey. Patty is also the Vice President of Outreach and Advocacy of the Alzheimer’s Association Orange County Chapter, so this journey struck her on a personal and professional level.

“Hospice was a tremendous benefit,” she says. Patty talked about the interdisciplinary team such as the social worker who helped smooth out the rough family dynamics and the chaplain who guided her family spiritually find peace and connect with their local church. The Hospice Care of the West team even sent a hairdresser who came and cut her hair. “She looked just adorable,” Patty reflected. But more importantly, “she was comfortable,” Patty said. Hospice and the end of life is often a journey into the unknown and even more challenging when a parent has Alzheimer’s disease. Click below to listen to Patty’s interview with the Channel

6 morning news anchor.

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Hospice Care of the West launched a family series of commercials that capture the experiences of recording a life review video for patients and their children. Take a peek…

We interviewed Richard Marting, the son of John Marting, a World War II veteran who epitomized the Greatest Generation. John valued his wife Marjorie of 61 years, being a good father to his two sons and serving his country at war. In the interview with Richard, we discovered the life review video was the greatest gift to his family because John tells his story in his own words. The interview brought three generations of the Marting family together to listen to their patriarch. When Richard watches that video, he feels close to his father again. See commercial here

In the second commercial, we interview Susan Mullins, the remarkable daughter of Mary Burchard, reflecting on the life review interview. Susan says the recorded interview was the most wonderful time spent listening to her mother telling stories. Mary relives her piloting military aircraft in the clouds above America during World War II. Susan and her sister, Eileen McDargh, loved reminiscing in the sun with their mother. Though memories unfortunately fade with time, this life review video preserves Mary’s voice, her laugh, her smile and her extraordinary life journey that will now be passed down now from generation to generation.

The life review program is the brainchild of Donna Miller, Director of Volunteer Services at Hospice Care of the West. She creates these magical moments for families to come together and reminisce at a time when they’re feeling wrenched apart. These life review videos help the hospice patient and their family to pause and remember the good times they’ve shared together. For the children of hospice patients to be able to say that they’ve enjoyed this time with their parents in hospice is a tribute to our mission here at Our Celebration to Life.

To produce these authentic interviews with the children of hospice patients, we called on award-wining documentary filmmaker, Jay Gianukos, who has spent more than a decade filming life stories for families. Hospice Care of the West is the only hospice sitting down with their patients to video record precious life stories to pass on to their families.

These commercials are currently airing on Channel 6 in South Orange County. We hope the commercial series will help people understand the value of recording a legacy of memories for their families, especially at the end of life. Hospice Care of the West is a compass and guide on the end of life journey for these families. It’s not easy when you have to become a parent to your parent. But the life review video helped both of these children to remember the extraordinary lives their parents led even in their most fragile and vulnerable hour of life. Susan helps us all to realize that hospice and the life review video wasn’t just a gift

for her mother, but also for their entire family.

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Dr. Vidal Espeleta, Medical Director for Hospice Care of the West, joined the local morning news in a fascinating interview about the role of the doctor in making the decisions that determine quality of life for his patients and their families. Click below to watch the local Channel 6 News show with Dr. Espeleta.

As an intensive care physician and pulmonologist at Saddleback Memorial in Laguna Hills, Dr. Espeleta must have the conversation with families about hospice and end-of-life issues. Hospice is comfort-focused care provided at home by a multidisciplinary team—doctor, nurse, social worker and spiritual care coordinator—for patients with life-changing diseases and their families.

Dr. Espeleta chooses to work with Hospice Care of the West because of their philosophy to keep patients on the same medications and collaborate seamlessly with the physicians to ensure their patients maintain and improve quality of life when they transition from the hospital to home.

He is on-call with a team of hospice medical directors around the clock, 24-7, to oversee medical care and work with the on-site nurses to provide pain relief for patients on hospice. He recommends hospice for patients wishing to spend their last days at home surrounded by family and friends rather than in a hospital connected to life support machines.

In the intensive care unit at the hospital, Dr. Espeleta often has to make split-second decisions to connect a patient to life support. These are the crisis moments when he has to speak to the family to find out what the patient’s wishes are because the patient can’t communicate. Dr. Espeleta says these decisions are often burdens to the family members in an already difficult hour.

The way we can prevent our families from making these kinds of decisions is to have conversations about our wishes with our families and doctors before the crisis. Do you want to be on a

ventilator, or other life support measures? Read more about the kinds of questions that can guide you through these conversations. Do you want to spend your last days at home? Nine out 10 Americans say they want to be home surrounded by friends and family, yet so many patients take their last glances of life in the intensive care unit of hospital connected to machines. Check out advance directives here to record your healthcare decisions and give them to your family and doctors.

As Dr. Espeleta finds, most of his patients and their families want to take this journey at home and hospice is the best solution to make that last wish a reality.

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Denise Carson, blog author, and Debbie Robson, Executive Director of Hospice Care of the West, at Channel 6 News.

Rob Merritt, the news anchor for Channel 6 in Orange County, turned the spotlight on Our Celebration to Life Blog and Hospice Care of the West to give his audience resources and tips for approaching the end of life journey and grief during the holidays.

He introduced two special guests to share our story. Hospice social worker, Gemma Hefferman, shares how the mission of celebrating life at Hospice Care of the West transforms their patient and family experiences from fear to joy, peace and comfort on hospice. Debbie Robson, Executive Director of Hospice Care of the West, joins the conversation on the Channel 6 News to share some of the special programs such Our Celebration to Life blog that invites the community to join the conversation and add comments to the stories and information shared online. She also talks about

We Honor Veterans and the Life Review Video that guide patients to reflect on their defining life experiences. These unique services of Hospice Care of the

West have helped the hospice team to be more sensitive and personalize their care of veterans and their families.

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Dr. Jorge Rivero, Medical Director for Hospice Care of the West. photo by Scott Weisgerber

Dr. Jorge Rivero’s inspiration to care for seniors started when he was a medical student keeping his grandfather comfortable at the end of life. Yet today, Dr. Rivero, now a Medical Director for Hospice Care of the West, recalls what brought him the most joy at the bedside with his grandfather were the captivating journeys into his past. His grandfather shared sensory rich stories of running a factory that made chili products and seasonings in Lima, Peru. Today, his family history lives on in his memories.

Equally memorable was his grandfather’s stubbornness in taking his medications or going to the doctor. He hated being in the hospital so Dr. Rivero accepted the challenge of dealing with most of the urgent care at home. He earned his grandfather’s trust and respect by taking time to listen to his stories, which translated to subsiding the stubborn behavior and following doctor’s orders.

With nearly three decades dedicated to geriatric medicine, Dr. Rivero uses the gift of listening to help his patients be comfortable and thrive in life’s second half.  In addition to serving as the medical director at Hospice Care of the West, he has a bustling group practice, Senior Care Medical Associates, in South Orange County. Part of his mission in ensuring his patients are comfortable, peaceful and happy in the last months of their

life is to transition them into hospice care, which is managed by an interdisciplinary team of experts specializing in end of life.  Along with his medical expertise as a hospice doctor, he collaborates with a nurse, social worker, spiritual care coordinator and volunteers to support and care for patients and their families at home instead of in a hospital toward the end. In addition to making house calls with patients, he meets with the hospice team weekly to manage the hospice patients’ care.

Before his group practice with Senior Care Medical Associates and becoming a medical director for Hospice Care of the West, he served on the faculty at University of California, Irvine where he cared for a large senior population that opened a window to understanding the inner workings of hospice. He noticed that when he referred patients to Hospice Care of the West and made the decision to be the attending doctor in the care, the nurses always collaborated with him on symptom management for his patients. He began to see the benefits of hospice care improving the quality of life for his patients and their families at home.

Doctors referring their patients to hospice care can choose to be the attending doctor, which means overseeing the plan of care. Alternatively, they can transfer their patients’ care to the hospice medical director. Dr. Rivero says many doctors choose not to be the attending doctor in hospice care and he feels this is a missed opportunity to show their commitment and continuity of care. He says in some cases, patients and families could feel like they are being left during the transition into hospice. Though this is not the case, as a medical director at Hospice Care of the West, he visits the patient’s home if there is no attending doctor and eases the transition into hospice. Patients and families often are so relieved to be home after a long stint in hospital. They are grateful when he and the hospice nurse arrive to take over their care. Though he enjoys these home visits, his wish is to see more doctors continue care

and sign on as the attending doctor in hospice care. This choice he believes will broaden the awareness and improve acceptance of hospice care in the medical community.

Though every patient and family is different, he has come to realize that discussing hospice as an option earlier, rather than later, helps all involved to make the transition when the time has come smooth. He takes the time to explain that he can no longer improve the patient’s function with aggressive medical treatment and that they’ve reached the point of considering a course toward making the patient as comfortable as possible. In his experience, hospice gives the patients and their families a chance to recognize the decline in function while seizing the opportunity to come together to celebrate the patient’s life and preserve family history before it’s too late.

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