Hospice of New Mexico

Hello, I have wanted to contactyou for a week but dealing with the demands after a death is hectic. My husband David (Butch) H. Davis was under your care. I was lucky to get Tim McGrath RN and Iyesha BrooksCNA to help care for him. They both were so caring, kind, and eagar to help in any way possible. I can't thank them enough for all the care and work that they provided for my husband. They care about their patients and also extended the care for me. Always asking how they cpuld help me!! I just want to shout out how good they are, and I learned so much from them as they were so kind to explain everything and why things were done. I also want to thank Moriah Smith for her loving care and her help with my nephew who needed a letter for his job back in Seattle noting he was caring for my husband as well. I just can't say the words enough on how much it means to have people like Tim and Iyesha care for our loved one and with such kindness and loving care. Thank you for the wonderful care and kindness. I wish we had more people in the world like your team.Thank youVi Davis

I'm not sure what I would've done if Hospice of New Mexico hadn't swooped in and said We'll take this from here.He'd just been put on Hospice, which was a term I winced to hear, seeing as he'd just turned 70, this wasn't supposed to happen so swiftly, but he was having trouble swallowing -- anything -- so it was inevitable. First, a visit from a case manager, of sorts, walked me through all of the basics, making end-of-life decisions on his care, my Power of Attorney, and most importantly, living arrangements -- we had to get him out of that hospital. "I know a great place, they rarely have a vacancy, but if you can get him into Night N Gail... Let me call and find out."There was a vacancy, we got him in, right away, and then the inevitable began to steadily, gracefully fade away.My father lived two solid years following his Hospice diagnosis, slowly getting stronger each month, eventually recovering enough to return to his old self, a firebrand Progressive who immensely enjoyed a daily conversation with a chaplain, doctor or pretty nurse -- all three provided by Hospice NM. When he passed, this organization not only held a private memorial service for him at the home, they also celebrated the lives of their lost patients at the Albuquerque Museum, about a year later, a memorial that clearly demonstrated their compassion and humanity for each and every person they're connected to. I was lucky to find them, and I found closure with their help.

They are to large to care. My mom got home at 3:pm Friday and they didn't bring the meds till 5:30 pm. Being nervous and scared I felt I needed more then just a bag of meds. At 2:00 am Saturday early morning my mom gets a fever, I call and the 1st call they don't want to send a nurse. The 2nd call they send a nurse and tells me I need liquid Tylenol. So at 4:am I'm heading to Walmart in RR. (Only 2 Walmart's open 24hours) to get Tylenol to break my moms fever. The nurse says I can wait till 6:am when a closer Walmart will open. My mom is burning with 103.? Fever. Really!!! Like I'm going to wait. Monday they come with a care package which I should have received on Friday. My mom kept running a fever and they bring me antibiotics that are bad for the kidney knowing my mom has cancer there, which will make her body shut down quicker. I know my mom is going but I didn't hire them to take her quicker or give me the meds to give her which will take her life sooner. I wanted the best for her and to do what was right. I wanted her out of pain and to go peacefully. We are talking about my mom. This is the hardest thing to do and to work with a hospice team that treats your loved one like there just a check. Money medicare will be giving them for taking care of them and not treating them like a love one. That hurts. I went w/ legacy on Tuesday and they were wonderful. Had a nurse every day checking on my mom which eased some of the stress on me. Seeing someone care for my mom as much as I do is a blessing. I'm on FB and please feel free to contact me w/ any questions. I don't want anyone to experience what I did.

Hospice of NM was incredibly helpful to my family during this tough time. They provided resources to help get my mother home quickly so she could spend her last days at home. They were also very helpful with resources after she passed.

Last month, I contacted Hospice of New Mexico for grief counseling after the death of my brother. In the space of two months, my counselor forgot two of our appointments, and then today, he missed a third without notifying me that he'd been called away to deal with another client's situation. I understand that unforeseen things happen, but a clinician should take a moment to let someone know that they've been called away. It takes thirty seconds to send a text, or to ask someone in the office to do so. My grief is very fresh, and each time my counselor failed to show up, I ended up in tears.I wrote to the executive director, Adam Roach, to let him know what had happened. He said he was sorry that my counselor's other appointment had delayed him today, but he did not address the fact that this was the third time my counselor had failed to show, nor did he acknowledge that my counselor had a responsibility to inform me that he wouldn't be able to make our appointment. He offered to have me meet with a different counselor, but at this point, I'd rather not set myself up for any more tears. I'm crying enough of them already.

My family member was a client of Hospice of New Mexico for a few months: Feb, 2020 to Early May, 2020. My loved one became very sick. HNM responded quickly and sent a portable Xray service to the home. He was quickly diagnosed with pneumonia and put on oral antibiotic. That response I thought was quick and wonderful. But he got sicker over the next few days and further into delirium. I called and got advice from them for 2 days. They responded to my calls promptly. He got worse and worse distressed. I called an ambulance and sent him to the hospital. At the emergency dept at the VA they decided my family nember was having a reaction to the antibiotic that hospice ordered. The VA had treated him with this drug in the past and found it made him severely confused. (I did not know this.) They switched him to a different antibiotic. In two days the delirium stopped. He came home to me relieved of the awful delirium. I did not blame the MD at HNM for this bad reaction to a drug. They did not know it was a bad drug for my family member. The MD at the VAMC said I did the right thing sending my loved one to the hospital. HNM disagreed. I thought they would be glad that the VA figured out the problem and got it solved.They were not glad at all. To make a long story short, they would not accept my loved one back as their client. They tell you, in the beginning, that you have a right to revoke hospice and go to a hospital. But if you dare to choose that option, they get mad. I did the right thing. My family member was in awful distress. He was becoming acutely psychotic with escalating anxiety and agitation. He was climbing the walls here at home. What HNM told me to do wasn't helping. I felt he needed to be evaluated in a hospital emergency department. I'm so glad I sent him. I'm so glad he was admitted and effectively helped at the hospital. I wish they would have taken him back as a hospice client. Instead they chose to punish us for not being obediant to their dictates. Sometimes you have to protect your family member from the hospice service.

I had to find a hospice for a family member this past May. I'm so glad I could get away from Presbyterian's Hospice program!! After doing online research and talking to caregivers, I chose Hospice of New Mexico to care for my relative. That was the best decision I ever made for my relative. The Hospice was extremely caring, patient with explaining EVERYTHING, and when the time came for the passing of my relative -- the on-call nurse stayed with me and my family and helped to make all the contact with funeral homes and insurance people. They went far above and beyond and I am so very grateful for them. I can't go into specifics about the relative because it's still too soon for me to talk about -- my grief is still very fresh. If you need a caring, compassionate, and very experienced Hospice service -- please consider using Hospice of NM.