Transitions Hospice
Adding Humane Touch to End-Of-Life Care

Over the last four decades, the world of end-of-life care has evolved significantly worldwide, occupying its own niche in the healthcare system. With changing attitudes around the treatment of chronic and terminal illnesses, people are increasingly opting for in-home palliative and hospice care to make their final days as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. When the reality of an end-of-life diagnosis clouds both the patient and the caregiver, it’s the humane touch of the palliative and hospice care workers that usher the ailing to experience peaceful, pain-free final days on their own specified terms — in comfort and with dignity.

Expanding their unique 24x7 individualized care model to hospice and palliative care is Illinois-based Transitions Hospice and Palliative Care, administering post-acute services across the care continuum. The organization’s comprehensive care plan is led by dedicated interdisciplinary teams, which include physicians, registered nurses, certified nursing assistants, dietitians, social workers, chaplains, and volunteers who provide physical, emotional, social, and spiritual support to patients dealing with terminal and chronic illnesses. With their round-the-clock services, Transitions has been successful in reducing hospitalizations and saving expenses by around 22,000 USD per patient a year.

“Our hospice and palliative admissions are handled by experienced practice nurses, accelerating us to begin advance care planning right away. It is designed to create a better care plan and equip case managers with the education and training needed to provide exceptional care,” explains Jim Palazzo, Founder and CEO of Transitions Hospice.

Palazzo began his career in skilled nursing and worked in long-term care for 15 years before launching Transitions Hospice on his own.

Having been at the receiving end of poor quality services in the hospice space led to the foundational idea behind Transitions Hospice in 2005.

Transitions believes in providing comprehensive care and support for patients and their caretakers. One unique feature is that the company has an extended care team - an interventional or crisis team - that operates outside of their routine care teams and offers 24-hour support to families. They also offer immediate services upon patient request to help them and their families with any challenges or concerns that may arise.

Through their impressive services, Transitions Hospice has been able to create an infrastructure unique to the marketplace assisting over 7,500 palliative patients. One of their successful interactions with patients includes aiding an elderly oncology patient receiving active treatment. The patient had weighed around 90 pounds when she started treatment, making the hospice anticipate dehydration issues. A couple of weeks into treatment, she reached out in the middle of the night for help vomiting and worsening signs of illness. Transitions immediately dispatched a registered nurse to the residence, and having anticipated the needs, had IV fluids on standby to quickly hydrate her. At the same time, they conducted a telehealth consultation with an advanced practice nurse to ensure that all medical aspects had been covered. This prevented rehospitalization and allowed the patient to remain in the comfort of her own home when a visit to the emergency room seemed inevitable.

Thirteen years into the business, Transitions Hospice has grown consistently at 30-35 percent every year while avoiding mergers with larger hospices. “Consolidation of larger companies in the hospice space can lower the quality of care, which we are not and never will be willing to compromise on. Culturally driven, we believe in an organic growth model that will allow us to maintain high-quality care while remaining large enough to be relevant to the payors and the MAS (Medicare Appeals System) coming in. As Transitions expands, we are excited to continue providing the care that everyone deserves, no matter what,” concludes Palazzo.