UnityPoint Hospice - Paula J. Baber Hospice Home

Paula J. Baber Hospice Home

Here you will find a place where individuals with life-limiting illnesses and their families can come together with a professional staff that will support their end-of-life choices with extraordinary care and compassion. As a nonprofit, community-based organization dedicated to providing end-of-life care, the Paula J. Baber Hospice Home in Fort Dodge, Iowa, continues a strong hospice tradition that first began as a volunteer effort in 1983.

The Paula J. Baber hospice home was built with our patients and their families in mind. Our hospice home has many unique features that makes it feel less like a hospice care facility and more like your home. We want to make sure your stay is as comfortable as possible. To do this, we offer a variety of different amenities and accommodations.

In Honor of a Remarkable Woman

Our hospice home is named in honor of Paula J. Baber. Paula was truly a remarkable woman. Steady and constant, she was a supportive wife and mother, a woman of strength and dignity. As a volunteer, Paula devoted hundreds of hours at Trinity Regional Medical Center during her lifetime.

Paula received hospice care prior to losing a courageous battle with cancer. "The hospice staff was very caring and provided wonderful care to Paula," said Paula's husband, Dr. William Baber.

Inpatient Hospice Care

Sometimes hospice patients develop symptoms that are not easily manageable with routine care in the home and require more intense medical treatment. Whenever situations arise that require additional attention that cannot be provided at home, inpatient hospice care is available. Inpatient hospice facilities provide care and comfort to end-of-life patients and their families in a peaceful, home-like setting.

Whenever a patient cannot get adequate treatment at home and needs inpatient care, UnityPoint Hospice has a professional staff that is available 24 hours a day to provide medical care in a supportive environment for the patient. Inpatient hospice care can also be provided by a patient's hospice care team in a hospital or nursing home when a dedicated hospice facility is not available in a community. Inpatient hospice care is considered short-term care, so as soon as the symptoms are manageable again by the primary caregiver, the patient would be discharged.

Inpatient hospice care services include:

• Nursing care
• Social services
• Spiritual care
• Hospice aides
• Comfort therapies, such as music, art and pet therapy
• Physical, occupational and speech therapy
• Oxygen and special medications, such as chemotherapy (for symptom management only, not for curative treatment)
• Volunteer companionship

Types of Inpatient Care

The most basic level of inpatient care is Residential Inpatient Care. This is when a patient needs to be more closely monitored than what a primary caregiver at home can provide.

General Inpatient Care is necessary when there is an onset of uncontrolled pain and symptoms that cannot be managed successfully at home or needs more intensive treatment than what is provided in residential inpatient care. It can be due to the frequency or aggressive nature of the pain or symptoms. It is still considered short-term care, so as soon as the pain and symptoms are manageable, the patient is moved back to residential inpatient or home hospice care.

It can be physically and emotionally demanding to take care of a loved one who is in the final stages of life. Sometimes the only way for primary caregivers to continue to provide quality hospice care for a patient is to allow themselves to have a rest or respite. Respite Inpatient Care is offered for hospice patients whose primary caregivers need a break, which is normal and often necessary for the physical and emotional well-being of the caregiver.