When Trauma Care Turns to Comfort: Inside a Trauma Center Hospice Program

You just handed off a trauma patient everyone in the room knows won't survive. What happens to them after you leave? Where does their family get to say goodbye? Will talks with Amie Lemire, Director of Hospice at UNC Health, about a program that brings hospice into the medical center. Instead of dying in a loud, fast turnover emergency department, critically injured patients can move to comfort care within hours, with a team supporting their families and the clinicians caring for them. This episode also covers the ED direct-admit-to-hospice pathway, the moment a trauma team pivots from resuscitation to comfort care, the 10-bed hospice home in Pittsboro, 13 months of bereavement support for families, and the moral injury clinicians carry after these deaths. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why organ or body donation can take hospice off the table How two hospice RNs stationed in the hospital from 8am-8pm can reach the bedside within 1-2 hours of a referral Why the team may stay at a family's side without formally enrolling the patient, when only hours remain Why inpatient hospice under Medicare is built for active crisis symptom management   Resources: Want more? Sign up for our weekly newsletter, The Confidence Dispatch. Want individualized coaching and mentorship? Check out The Loud & Clear Fellowship. Just have a question and want some personalized help? Book a free coaching call with us. Guests: Amie Lemire, Director of Hospice, UNC Hospice