Hospice Hires Medical Director
November 5, 2019 at 1:03 a.m.
By David [email protected]
Dr. Mark Meyer started in the part-time position at the Kosciusko County nonprofit in September.
“We’ve been in business for over 43 years and our hospice medical directors in the past have always been volunteer positions, filled by a variety of physicians in the community, who kind of oversaw or consulted with the physicians who followed the patient,” said KHCH Executive Director Glenn E. Hall.
The hospice medical directors were kind of adjunct to the patient’s primary care or other doctor who supervised the patient’s care, he said.
“They would meet with us, they would kind of supervise our nursing care, but we always went back to the patient’s physician,” Hall said.
By having Meyer on board, Hall said KHCH has the opportunity to have patients followed by KHCH’s own medical director. Every patient still has to have a physician, but Meyer can actually see patients in their home and even follow them as the primary physician.
“There are some community physicians who don’t like to follow hospice patients, for a variety of reasons,” Hall said.
He said Meyer contacted KHCH “and we had a wonderful opportunity to, for the first time, have an on-staff medical director and so we’re very excited to announce that and just looking forward to a great working relationship and opportunity to expand our hospice business.”
Meyer said before coming to KHCH he was in private practice out of Peru.
“My background is one where I used to train residents in a residency program, and then I subsequently did several administrative stints. One was with a large group for independent physician association when they were existent,” Meyer said.
In his training background he’s also a geriatrician. He trained in geriatrics in Philadelphia for a year. He did some hospice work when he was in private practice, and subsequently through his practice had more exposure to hospice.
“It was just a calling. It was where I needed to be,” Meyer said. “And so it was kind of a God-thing that we got together and had the same ideas, the same philosophies, so that’s how I kind of got here (to KHCH).”
He said it’s his and KHCH’s hope to build and provide the things that patients need.
“Physicians are very busy in their offices now and it gets very difficult to manage patients in different environments. And so we hope that what we’re trying to do here is, is take care of the patient but also help the physicians take care of their patients, so we’re trying to fill a void,” Meyer said.
Hall said that at any given time, KHCH could have between 30 to 35 patients on its daily census on any given day. The goal is to grow that to approximately 40 or more per day.
“We can do that now. With our current case load of about 32 patients, Dr. Meyer has almost half of those, almost 16 patients, that he is directly overseeing their care already,” Hall said.
One of the things that Hall said endeared him to Meyer was that Meyer had not only some hospice experience as a doctor but personally with his dad. Meyer saw firsthand the care his dad received and did not receive with hospice.
“There is such a void,” Meyer said. “Families are fractionated now, and so the situation with somebody that’s in the end of their life – trying to bring some of those families together so that there’s a meaningful relationship there – and then also, make sure that the patient is taken care of with the appropriate medication they need so that the experience they have to go through, that we can’t get out of, is one that people will be taken care of and have respect along the way.”
Hall said another important thing for people to know about hospice is that hospice doesn’t necessarily mean a death sentence or that the patient is dying today.
“There are those few that we get that that happens to, but typically a patient is referred for hospice when the physician believes that they are approximately within their last six months of life or so,” Hall said. “But we have patients who have been on hospice who actually got better and were discharged from hospice because of the excellent care that they received.”
He said they’ve also had patients who’ve been on hospice for a couple of years.
“For example, a patient who has ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease – as long as they are continuing to decline, that decline may be very, very slow but they need continual care and they can remain on hospice,” Hall said.
The goal for KHCH is to provide comfort for the patient, but “we spend as much time providing teaching, and counseling and support for the family as we actually do for the patient who is ill,” Hall said.
He said family involvement runs the gamut from none to “an amazing” support structure.
“What we become is a support structure for whatever support structure they have. Hospice becomes that fill-in piece to help with medication management, keeping the patient comfortable, helping the family and caregivers who either need some additional support – mental, emotional, spiritual, whatever that is – or if the patient doesn’t have anybody at all, then we work with the local facilities as well to make sure that we’re providing good care for that patient,” Hall said.
A patient can be on hospice and in a nursing home.
Meyer said as the patient’s needs grow, KHCH steps up to meet those needs.
Hall said somewhere in the future, he could see making Meyer full time, but doesn’t see KHCH needing more than one hospice medical director, as KHCH serves only Kosciusko County. There is one other volunteer physician who serves as a backup to Meyer if needed.
Meyer lives in Burlington, just south of Logansport. He’s in the KHCH office two days a week, but available by phone the rest of the time. He also does some work at home.
He and his wife of almost 24 years, Kathy, have three children. Their oldest is in the Airborne and two youngest are in post-college training in the medical field.
“I love it,” Meyer said of his position at KHCH. “It’s where I need to be and you’ve got a great organization here and I enjoy the community a lot. I’m an outdoorsman, so it’s pretty easy to like the scenery.”
Dr. Mark Meyer started in the part-time position at the Kosciusko County nonprofit in September.
“We’ve been in business for over 43 years and our hospice medical directors in the past have always been volunteer positions, filled by a variety of physicians in the community, who kind of oversaw or consulted with the physicians who followed the patient,” said KHCH Executive Director Glenn E. Hall.
The hospice medical directors were kind of adjunct to the patient’s primary care or other doctor who supervised the patient’s care, he said.
“They would meet with us, they would kind of supervise our nursing care, but we always went back to the patient’s physician,” Hall said.
By having Meyer on board, Hall said KHCH has the opportunity to have patients followed by KHCH’s own medical director. Every patient still has to have a physician, but Meyer can actually see patients in their home and even follow them as the primary physician.
“There are some community physicians who don’t like to follow hospice patients, for a variety of reasons,” Hall said.
He said Meyer contacted KHCH “and we had a wonderful opportunity to, for the first time, have an on-staff medical director and so we’re very excited to announce that and just looking forward to a great working relationship and opportunity to expand our hospice business.”
Meyer said before coming to KHCH he was in private practice out of Peru.
“My background is one where I used to train residents in a residency program, and then I subsequently did several administrative stints. One was with a large group for independent physician association when they were existent,” Meyer said.
In his training background he’s also a geriatrician. He trained in geriatrics in Philadelphia for a year. He did some hospice work when he was in private practice, and subsequently through his practice had more exposure to hospice.
“It was just a calling. It was where I needed to be,” Meyer said. “And so it was kind of a God-thing that we got together and had the same ideas, the same philosophies, so that’s how I kind of got here (to KHCH).”
He said it’s his and KHCH’s hope to build and provide the things that patients need.
“Physicians are very busy in their offices now and it gets very difficult to manage patients in different environments. And so we hope that what we’re trying to do here is, is take care of the patient but also help the physicians take care of their patients, so we’re trying to fill a void,” Meyer said.
Hall said that at any given time, KHCH could have between 30 to 35 patients on its daily census on any given day. The goal is to grow that to approximately 40 or more per day.
“We can do that now. With our current case load of about 32 patients, Dr. Meyer has almost half of those, almost 16 patients, that he is directly overseeing their care already,” Hall said.
One of the things that Hall said endeared him to Meyer was that Meyer had not only some hospice experience as a doctor but personally with his dad. Meyer saw firsthand the care his dad received and did not receive with hospice.
“There is such a void,” Meyer said. “Families are fractionated now, and so the situation with somebody that’s in the end of their life – trying to bring some of those families together so that there’s a meaningful relationship there – and then also, make sure that the patient is taken care of with the appropriate medication they need so that the experience they have to go through, that we can’t get out of, is one that people will be taken care of and have respect along the way.”
Hall said another important thing for people to know about hospice is that hospice doesn’t necessarily mean a death sentence or that the patient is dying today.
“There are those few that we get that that happens to, but typically a patient is referred for hospice when the physician believes that they are approximately within their last six months of life or so,” Hall said. “But we have patients who have been on hospice who actually got better and were discharged from hospice because of the excellent care that they received.”
He said they’ve also had patients who’ve been on hospice for a couple of years.
“For example, a patient who has ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease – as long as they are continuing to decline, that decline may be very, very slow but they need continual care and they can remain on hospice,” Hall said.
The goal for KHCH is to provide comfort for the patient, but “we spend as much time providing teaching, and counseling and support for the family as we actually do for the patient who is ill,” Hall said.
He said family involvement runs the gamut from none to “an amazing” support structure.
“What we become is a support structure for whatever support structure they have. Hospice becomes that fill-in piece to help with medication management, keeping the patient comfortable, helping the family and caregivers who either need some additional support – mental, emotional, spiritual, whatever that is – or if the patient doesn’t have anybody at all, then we work with the local facilities as well to make sure that we’re providing good care for that patient,” Hall said.
A patient can be on hospice and in a nursing home.
Meyer said as the patient’s needs grow, KHCH steps up to meet those needs.
Hall said somewhere in the future, he could see making Meyer full time, but doesn’t see KHCH needing more than one hospice medical director, as KHCH serves only Kosciusko County. There is one other volunteer physician who serves as a backup to Meyer if needed.
Meyer lives in Burlington, just south of Logansport. He’s in the KHCH office two days a week, but available by phone the rest of the time. He also does some work at home.
He and his wife of almost 24 years, Kathy, have three children. Their oldest is in the Airborne and two youngest are in post-college training in the medical field.
“I love it,” Meyer said of his position at KHCH. “It’s where I need to be and you’ve got a great organization here and I enjoy the community a lot. I’m an outdoorsman, so it’s pretty easy to like the scenery.”
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