Carolyn's House

Carolyn’s House provides 24-hour hospice care to individuals who are unable to remain at the place they call home. HCP offers residential, hospice services when personal choices or medical needs make other care options difficult.

Carolyn’s House is named after a hospice nurse, Carolyn Croxton Slane, who served HCP patients and families for many years. When she was faced with a terminal illness, she sought care from our program. It was in her memory that the residence was named. In 2015, the name was changed from the Carolyn Croxton Slane Residence to Carolyn’s House, to continue to honor its namesake.

The approach to care at Carolyn’s House includes an interdisciplinary team of specially trained professionals who work with the patient and family to develop a plan of care specific to your needs. These professionals include physicians, registered and licensed nurses and nursing assistants 24-hours a day. Spiritual counselors and trained volunteers are also a part of the services provided.

Patients may choose to have their primary physician or the HCP Medical Director guide or oversee their plan of care. Along with the interdisciplinary team, Carolyn’s House offers:

• Greater assistance with daily living activities
• Focused pain and symptom management
• Short-term caregiver relief
• 24-hour nursing care

The focus of supportive care is patient and family-centered care that optimizes comfort and quality of life by anticipating, preventing and treating the symptoms from disease and side effects of treatment. This is done by coordinating care with the patient's primary care or specialty care provider. Levos Supportive Care serves as an adjunct home­based service for those who are chronically or terminally ill. Examples of these types of illnesses are: advanced cancers, congestive heart failure (CHF), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The name Levos comes from the Latin word “levo“ which means to lift up or to relieve.

Levos Supportive Care strives for and promotes shared decision making among the patient, family, and the treating providers. These discussions present both the benefits and burdens of the treatment choices available to the patient. The role of Levos staff and clinicians in this process is to listen and clarify the wishes of the patient regarding future tests, treatments and care plans.

The patient care guide will help patients navigate the healthcare system. This means that the patient care guide will help you access appropriate and timely care, find doctors and review treatment options. In short, the patient care guide serves as the coach of the health care team.

The main difference between supportive care and hospice care is that supportive care can be offered while the patient is receiving curative treatment for their illness. Both hospice and supportive care offer compassionate care to patients with serious and life-limiting illnesses. In short, all hospice care is supportive, but not all supportive care is hospice.

Hospice is a philosophy of care rather than a place. Hospice care is a specialized field that focuses on caring and comforting, rather than curing those with life-limiting illness. HCP provides care in the place that you call home. That may be your home, an assisted living or skilled nursing facility, or in our personal care home called Carolyn’s House.