The cornerstone of any Hospice provider is to manage a person’s final days with dignity and compassion. Tucson, Arizona’s Harmony Hospice is one dedicated to personalizing end-of-life care through an empathetic, holistic approach. The team at Harmony has long served the greater Tucson community to assist in the bereavement process and streamline communication across the ecosystem as effectively and thoughtfully as possible.
However, in today’s fast-paced and technology-driven world, communication gets stalled. The Harmony Hospice team knew that phone calls and emails were no longer the most efficient forms of communication between care teams and patients’ loved ones. Healthcare professionals found it tedious to respond to emails and return phone calls when their top priority was tending to the patient with undivided care and attention.
Acknowledging the communication gap, Harmony Hospice needed a solution that could improve the cadence and quality of communication between staff members, as well as between staff
and patients’ families.
Enter Serenity Connect.
The Serenity Connect platform was first used for internal communication purposes only. The social worker, nurse, hospice aide and spiritual care all worked with staff members to stay informed in real-time.
Harmony Hospice saw results immediately. The time it took the Hospice care team to send and receive timely information drastically decreased, eliminating the burden of excessive calls and messages to follow up on. Because of that success, Harmony expanded the use of the platform to families. These channels have been incredible opportunities for connection for family members that live out of state and cannot visit their loved ones regularly. With Serenity, families experienced more connectedness and transparency. They received pictures and video chats, getting a better glimpse of their loved one’s final days.
“We conduct 30-minute life review videos with patients on hospice if they’re cognitively able to have a discussion regarding their lives. This video becomes a truly valuable keepsake for family members as they navigate the end-of-life journey with their loved one. Serenity Connect makes it easy to share these special moments, allowing a geographically dispersed family to feel close to the process.”
When the pandemic caused an even greater wedge between families and their loved ones in Hospice, Serenity Connect facilitated virtual contact during and even after end-of-life care. The HIPAA-compliant communication platform enabled the Harmony Hospice team to communicate with patients’ loved ones to discuss topics such as family resources for end-of-life care, Power of Attorney information, steps for coping after a family member has passed, or simply to share condolences.
“Serenity Connect is such a great company to work with. From day one they have treated us like a partner and have repeatedly asked for our opinions and suggestions. Besides providing a much-needed, user-friendly service, they are continuously working on improvements, updates, and enhanced service offerings to their platform. What I thought was just going to be a simple HIPAA-compliant text app has evolved into something so much more. The whole experience has been wonderful.”
Read the Harmony Hospice case study in its entirety to learn more about how Harmony Hospice leveraged the Serenity Connect platform to harmonize communication across 35 care team members, 100+ patients, and their families.
