Hospice of Santa Cruz County

With compassion and excellence, we support all people of all ages through the journey of serious illness and grief, ensuring that no one walks this path alone.

That all members of our community live and die with dignity.

Goal One: Patients and families come first. Quality care and education about end-of-life care, palliative care, and grief support is the heart of hospice. We continue to break down barriers to access.

Goal Two: Hospice care for adults and children, palliative care for seriously ill adults, and grief support for all ages are our core activities.

Goal Three: We are expanding our service area into Northern Monterey County. This expansion south to Salinas provides patients and families access to the highest quality care in the region.

The organization provides learning funds for each employee and strategic coaching for senior leaders.

During the past two years, our energy has been focused on responding to the demands of the pandemic while planning for a continued COVID reality. We recognize that we do not know what the new normal will be, but we do know that Cathy ConwayHospice of Santa Cruz County is forever changed. During the past year and as we look to the future, our strategic responses and initiatives lay the groundwork for us to survive and thrive. Prior to the pandemic, our average daily census (the number of patients served in our hospice program on any given day) was 200. During the COVID surge, we saw the census drop – at the lowest point, May of 2021, our average daily census dropped to 138. This was due to a higher rate of deaths, shorter lengths of stay, and the impact of COVID on our referring partners (facilities, physicians, and local hospitals). While CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program relieved this financial impact in 2020-21, we anticipate it will take longer to grow the census than these funds cover. At this writing, our average daily census is back to the 150s. What does it take to rebuild a census, remain the hospice of choice, and ensure that all those who need our care have access to our services? Focus, intention, and responsiveness. Deeply embedded in the hospice philosophy is a commitment to interdisciplinary teamwork. As we felt the impacts of the surge and higher death rates in the county last year, we convened a long-term interdisciplinary team focused on rebuilding our census. The team includes the leaders responsible for marketing, referral relationship development, intake, admissions, and patient care. We explored every function in the flywheel to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to map process improvements and help hold our competitors at bay while providing timely access to our services for patients and families. Quality care for patients and families drives every decision we make.