Hospice: The Best Kept Secret in American Healthcare

Dec 7, 2016 3:30 PM ET

America's Charities CSR Blog

Join America's Charities as we highlight different nonprofits and share how individuals and companies can Shape the Future of various causes through workplace giving programs.

Since our founding in 1977, Capital Caring’s mission has been to simply improve care for the more than 1,200 people living with advanced illness that we care for each day via our world-class hospice and palliative care programs. While we focus on alleviating pain, anxiety, breathlessness, and all causes of distress, we also equip families and loved with the tools they need to feel confident in their own ability to comfort their loved ones.

With a service area that extends from Prince George’s County, Maryland to Loudoun County, Virginia, and from Washington, DC, all the way to the North Carolina border, Capital Caring covers more than 11,500 square miles (larger than the entire state of Massachusetts!). Our physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors, nursing aides, and others are committed to providing compassionate care to all those who entrust us with the care of their loved wherever they call home, every day of every year. We cared for more than 6,300 patients last year alone, and since our founding, we have been honored to be welcomed into the homes of more than 102,000 patients.

Capital Caring provides hospice care to all who come to us – regardless of the severity of their disease condition or the complexity of their needs. At Capital Caring, 98 percent of our patients report significant pain reduction within 48 hours of coming into our care, thereby allowing them to spend time focusing their attention on friends, family, and loved ones. The vast majority of our care is provided in our patients’ homes, but we also recognize that home is not always an ideal environment and we are proud to offer more than 50 acute care inpatient beds in Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia; these beds are located in facilities that provide 24/7, round-the-clock care to our patients whose symptoms cannot be managed at home. And our innovative TeleCaring™ program consists of twice-daily proactive calls to each patient’s home so we are aware of any needs that might arise, even when our clinical teams are not present.

While a vast majority of hospice care is reimbursed through Medicare and commercial insurance, Capital Caring never turns anyone away due to inability to pay for our care. With the support of thousands of donors throughout our service area, Capital Caring provides more than $3 million in care each year through our Patient Care Fund Program to patients with no financial resources.

Your support of Capital Caring will help us continue to meet the needs of so many of our neighbors facing advanced illness. Thank you!

Our thanks to Capital Caring for sharing their mission and impact with us.  You can learn more about their work at www.capitalcaring.org. To support their efforts, please donate to Capital Caring through your company's workplace giving program (CFC#39664 if you're a military or federal employee participating in the Combined Federal Campaign). 

If your company would like to start a workplace giving program to support nonprofits like Capital Caring, click here. We have a portfolio of solutions designed to help large and small organizations give back to the causes they care about.