The Elizabeth Hospice

I had a very good experience with Elizabeth Hospice last year. As my mother was passing on from cancer, they were right there making sure her pain was controlled and she was safe. We had a difference hospice for my step father’s passing previously and they were not around for the cross over at all and we did not see them much compared to the amount of help I got from Elizabeth Hospice so I am very appreciative of them. The people who came were also very nice and kind people. I would use them again.

What a compassionate, caring, helpful and informative service. In a very difficult time with our 92 year old father passing, Elizabeth Hospice guided us carefully along the way. They were available ²⁴⁄₇ and everyone we spoke with was full of compassion, advice, and a genuine caring heart. You made the passing of our dear dad easier by teaching us what to expect and how to care for him in the last couple weeks. You are truly angels and we appreciate your help emotionally and physically and medically. Thank you so much! Many blessings to you!

My mother and I live out of state and travelled to be with my grandmother who got very ill very fast and required hospice services while still in the hospital. The nurses and social workers were honestly like family to us, they were compassionate, caring and whenever we needed them no matter the time they were there helping us advocate for my grandmother. Every morning when they arrived it was like I could breathe again because I knew she was getting the best care possible from people I trust. We were helped every step of the way, which is so important during a time when nothing can seem to make sense. She passed peacefully with all of her wishes fulfilled and I can honestly say we couldn’t have accomplished any of it without the team provided by them. If you want a group of people who knows what they’re doing when it comes to handling your loved ones end of life care– please please choose Elizabeth Hospice.

As I’d always heard, Elizabeth used to define great hospice care in San Diego… I’m afraid those days may be gone. We chose them because of our past knowledge of their reputation so our mental records were too dated, I guess. Our «team» was non-​responsive, not present with our Mom, not attentive to our supporting family member and several errors were made so we cancelled services after 5 days. I’d heard an ‘audit’ a few years back caused some issues in the S.D. Hospice world. Perhaps this is fallout from that. Too bad.

Its hard to be a fan of a service that assisted in my Father’s passing, but I have to say that Elizabeth Hospice was a blessing during my Dad’s final months battling cancer. After multiple rounds of radiation, the doctors had suggested we do chemo and I’m so glad we ignored them and got him signed up with hospice instead. I truly believe that if it didn’t actually extend his life then at least it gave him comfort and some quality of life in his last months.
Although he had wonderful caregivers, especially in his final days when he required 24 hour care, there were some times that my Mom could not get a response from the Hospice team but the good far outweighed the negative. These people are angels and if you or a loved one is facing terminal illness, the services that hospice offers are amazing.

Within the last 4 months Elizabeth Hospice has been instrumental in easing the pain of losing both my husband’s parents. They provided high quality care, made sure my in-​laws were not in pain and have continued ongoing support for the family. The caregivers were knowledgable about how to care for an immobilized, dying person, they coordinated getting a hospital bed, supplies and were kind to us. They even helped us with the after death care of our loved ones. I cannot speak highly enough about how wonderful this care has been. I have found them to be a true blessing to our family.

While the individual care givers provided by this hospice were generally kind, respectful, and capable, the Hospice itself was rude to us, provided subcontractors for weekends or holidays who had no information about my mom, contradicted the plans we were working with which sent us into weekend searches for correct information, and the supervisor only showed up to put pills in a box. One of the care givers conned our mom out of some of her possessions and we never got a clear story about background checks. There was no trained emotional support for my mom or our family. As my mom lay dying, one of the kind caregivers had never been present at death before and was frightened, unable to give us information about this very slow death, and we had to take care of her too. The supervisor truly said to us, «Call us when she is dead» and then simply showed up to remove the remaining morphine. The hospice assigned doctor, as we later found out, was really nothing more than a phone service who under-​prescribed the morphine which would have made my mother more comfortable in her final dying. The caregivers, if minimally trained and often we were their first clients, were caring, gentle, and warm to my mom and to the family.

This Hospice deserves more respect. My Mom passed in Sep. 2012, EH was very accommodating with everything I needed for my Mom. I cared for her myself every day and EH was scheduled twice a week, however I only needed them once to help with complete bathing. Everybody was very nice and respectful, they gave me Meds if I needed them for my Mom inclusive Morphine, which I only gave her when she showed some signs of discomfort. I would HIGHLY recommend this Hospice. I know when there is a crisis with a family member everyone is uptight, but EH deserves a great review!!!
Thank you Elizabeth Hospice for all your caring. !!!

Never have had the opportunity or need actually to write such a review… especially for a hospice. However, the care and treatment my mother received from the intake meeting all the way to the end was exceptional. All of the professionals we came in contact with were kind, caring, and compassionate. I cannot say enough good things and if Elizabeth hospice ever wants to venture to expand in northern california… we would be lucky! Special thanks to Cynthia, Kay, Veronica, Pauline, and Jeff.

I would never recommend Elizabeth Hospice to anyone. The only reason my dear friend did not suffer was because she had so many people around her to take up the slack for this incompetent company. We ran out of morphine after it was promised to be delivered at a certain time. The grieving husband had to threaten to go buy it in the street if they couldn’t get it delivered on time. We ended up having to scramble to find the pharmacy where it was called into and pick it up ourselves. There’s more… I just don’t want to get into it all. I just hope they don’t get paid for providing such bad service. What a sham.

This hospice has wonderful, kind and knowledgeable social workers. My family couldn’t be happier with the services they provided for my father’s final days.
However, I am very disappointed with their billing department. There have been 2 questionable bills that can’t seem to get resolved, only because the person in accounting will not return emails (her request) or voicemail messages. After several weeks of waiting I called to speak to a manager at Elizabeth Hospice who agreed this lack of communication was unacceptable. She took over my father’s case and now will follow up. Since most hospice patients are elderly no family members should have to deal with this type of aftermath. I will see how this now gets taken care of.

There are no words to describe the incredible employees of Elizabeth Hospice. We involved them in my mom’s care later than most. We were in crisis mode. Their response was immediate. After the initial intake procedures, an RN (Bridgett) came and immediately catheterized and took my mom’s pain away and got the ball rolling. She was sweet and gentle and efficient. LVNs cared for her after that. Each was perfect. They knew exactly what was happening and what to expect. They kept a vigilant eye on all of us, keeping the pain at bay and easing my mom through the end of her life. Mirabelle, in addition to excellent nursing, sat by mom mom’s side, watching her and talking softly to her while patting her hand. Chris, who came in with energy and knowledge and more excellent nursing, and then Sergio, who was with us for 12 hours, seeing us through to the end. There are no words to describe this young man. He kept the family members involved and calm and reassured without ever taking his attention off Mom. He knew exactly what was happening and why and what to expect next. We waited intently for my daughter, who is an RN to arrive. When she did, Sergio spoke to her in the medical language of their own which calmed and reassured her that her beloved Grandma was in good hands. I’m in awe of Sergio’s knowledge and ability to get families through this day after day. I highly recommend Elizabeth Hospice if you are unfortunate enough to need them.

WARNING *DO NOT USE THIS HOSPICE*
*BEWARE OF THEIR GO TO DRUG COMBO MORPHINE AND ATIVAN*
Besides letting this hospice care for my father 2 years ago, my only other regret is not speaking up sooner. As I may have saved a few other lives in doing so.
My father was released from the hospital in the care of hospice. I was reassured by the hospice representative before bringing him home, that RECOVERY was the plan for him and although he qualified for hospice due to his incurable congestive heart failure, many of the patients get better and do not need the services after awhile. So that was the plan.
My father came home weak but alert and happy to be home.
In less than 24hrs of that release my father was dead.
Elizabeth hospice come into my home, took over as if I wasnt even there, and started aggressively administrating my father with lethal doses of the drugs Morphine and Ativan in combination.
He received one dose, of each, when he got home from the hospital, slept, and woke up groggy, 6 hours later.
Upon that waking at 1am he was given the combo every 2 hours (wether he woke or not, they were given under the tongue) for a total of 3 combo doses, all given within ⁴¹⁄₂ hours!!!
****It is important to say that when this nurse asked my father if he was in any pain or had any trouble breathing, before she gave him her first of the 3 doses, my father’s answer was «no».
So why the Morphine and Ativan then??? He was in no pain and wasnt having trouble breathing? «To keep him comfortable», was the answer.
When I asked why dont you wait until he wakes up before giving him more drugs, she said «he could wake agitated and you want him to be comfortable dont you?»
By the time I realized that none of that made sense to me, I asked Hospice to leave my home stating that is not what I want for my father (as i pointed to my father who slumped back on the couch completely out of it).
Why so aggressive with the drugs?
They had only been there 12 hours.
But those 12 hours were all the time they needed, as my father never woke up again.
Only later I found out that Morphine and Ativan in combination is a form of Euthanasia.
My friend had almost the same experience with this same exact hospice, as they wanted to use this drug combo with her mother for a bout of diarrhea… But she knew better, I unfortunately did not.
PLEASE BEWARE OF HOSPICE INTENT FOR YOUR LOVED ONE AND THE COMBO OF MORPHINE AND ATIVAN.

My father’s pain was not properly controlled during his last few days of life under Elizabeth Hospice care. The RN in charge blamed it on someone else — that made no sense at all. No one took accountability. Then, unfortunately, he died WITHOUT PAIN RELIEF. I regret that to this day. When my sister received a hand written note from the RN, she wrote «sorry for the loss of your MOTHER.» OMG! My dad died in early May and it wasn’t until the beginning of October, 5 months later, that I received a condolence package along with grief counseling information. My mother had a different hospice care and it was exceptional. Hers (Silverado) was caring and organized from the get-​go. They let us know when the time was near for my mom’s passing, unlike Elizabeth Hospice. We were able to properly pay our last respects to my mother. I am so sad we were not able to do the same for my dad due to the poor communication from Elizabeth Hospice.

i love the care they showed my father at the end of his life. they provided superior service. the nurses, were amazing and made my dad comfortable as he passed. he died in the middle of the night and a social worker called me to discuss my feelings per my request. they were so supportive even in the middle of the night.
they are amazing. i am grateful to them for everything!!!

Every aspect of our experience with Elizabeth Hospice was a disappointment. But we are in our 50’s and I work full time. They could not work around my availability. Perhaps we did not fit their business model. And they abandoned us twice. Once on Friday afternoon when they pulled their ⁷⁄₂₄ Crisis Care nursing. We requested an urgent, emergency visit. But they cancelled that request without telling us. As a result, my husband was admitted to ICU later that day. They dropped the ball again when he was being released from the hospital. They made zero arrangements for the move to skilled nursing that followed. I had two hours to make the arrangements myself.

My father wouldn’t have made it to walk me down the aisle at my wedding if it wasn’t for this organization. I wouldn’t have know how to survive the grief and continue to go through the grief of my father without the complimentary counseling services provided by this wonderful organization.
They have beautiful and supportive memorial services and celebrations of life events. I’ve attended two already.
It’s unfortunate that it seems many are more angry with grief when writing their Unilocal reviews than actually taking the time to see any positive.

They were compassionate, patient and understanding as my dad left this earth. They cared for him, followed up with us and made sure his needs were met. He and our son were peacefully playing guitar and enjoy music until the end. They made sure he was in a private space and that he was comfortable. I will continue to make financial donations. This is an emotionally charged situation for many families, understandingly so. Hospice can be such a gift and they were a very well run, professional service, that didn’t ask us for anything other than feedback as our loved one passed on, to ensure his needs were met. Forever grateful.
Susie

I cannot recommend. First, the good: Some of the employees are conscientious and very pleasant, and they do the minimum well. They in-​house employees at the nursing home were in that category.
But, now the bad. They have communication problems and difficulty doing any more than the bare minimum.
It is very difficult to communicate with anyone but nursing staff that are full time on site. They insist you follow this 7 step communication process:
1. Call the main number
2. Get transferred to patient services
3. Explain who you are
4. Get put on hold. (could happen randomly anytime)
5. Explain who the patient is and where the patient is located
6. Then you can request to leave a message so someone can contact you.
7. Someone may return your call that day or the next day.
You almost have to make an appointment for a phone call just to set up an appointment so you can ask a question. I got so fed up with it, at one point I spoke with the director of Patient services. She promised me an email contact for me with the social worker. Never happened. They ALL have email. I live five hour drive away so I really need better service than that…
Only agree to Elizabeths if they will give you a single point of DIRECT contact. Otherwise, you will find yourself leaving messages and waiting…
Setting aside all the communications problems, I found they would only deliver on the MINIMUM. Anything outside of that, prepare to wait. My mom needed a doctor for an evaluation but it took weeks to get her to see a doctor. They make it difficult for you. I give one star for the dedicated nursing staff, but I cannot recommend.

It really hurts me to read the one and two star reviews for this hospice. I’m sorry these people had a bad experience. It would be nice for E.H. to respond. Our Mom
had congestive heart failure, she passed a while ago, in 2003. I just thought to write a review. The people at E.H. were very nice, caring and professional. I remember the assigned doctor was very knowledgeable and caring. As was the social worker assigned to my Mom. I have made some donations to them since then. I plan to call them, to suggest they look into these reviews, and respond.