Regional Hospice and Home Care Center for Comfort Care & Healing

The social worker and nurses who came to my home were a far cry from what I had been told Hospice was. There was no reassurance, no kindness, zero warmth and incorrect medical information. Nurses took eprsonal calls on their cellphones and also mislabeled medication. Had I not checked all the medications myself and read each label, I would have given the patient the wrong medicine. This is very basic but it got worse and the condescending tones and behaving as if we knew nothing was insulting and caused more grief than we were already experiencing. The narcotics box was not checked at each visit as required. I have rarely been spoken to as rudely and disrespectfully--- never mind in my own home. I blame myself for not firing Regional Hospice after the first week. I live with the awful memories becuse I trusted a doctor's referral. the doctor had no idea what really happens and how paying customers are treated. I will not address their billing procedures. I cannot relive it all myself. I deeply regret ANY contact with Regional Hospice. DO NOT believe the press. They are very hungry for attention from the media and paint a pretty picture. Reality is very different and there are many people in the area supporting this place without knowledge of how families are being treated and taken. A disgrace and I have needed healing just from the experience never mind my loved one's illness. We went somewhere else and it saved all of us.

Very poor in terms of honoring person's wishes. My spiritual needs were ignored by the in-house chaplain. Our family did not have any preparation for death. The only emotional support we received was from some volunteers. I cannot recommend the home services of Regional either. Our lives only got more stressful with this Hospice. Disturbing, haunting experience. Nothing like the Hospice we have a loved one in now. Night and day difference.

I cannot in good conscience recommend Regional Hospice and Home Care Center for Palliative Care and Healing. Their in-home Hospice services were so appalling, unprofessional and disrespectful to us that our lives became far more stressful rather than easier. The Hospice "philosophy of care" was not at all present in our experience. We were not treated well or like a family that was grieving and overwhelmed. They did not seem to realize the feelings of people in the household they were entering. We never knew when they were coming and a nurse or very ill informed social worker would show up without even calling first. It was hard to believe this was a Hospice agency considering what friends in other states had told me about their Hospice experiences.We were treated like ignorant people who needed to be scolded or like people who did not need the very complex assortment of protocols and treatments explained to us concisely. It seemed an after thought for one nurse who even labeled a medication incorrrectly. For one nurse answering her cell hone in front of us and telling us all about her conversation seemed appropriate to her. It was..in a word..appalling.There is better help available. Do not assume that because this is a Hospice that you will be treated with compassion or even offered spiritual and emotional help during this most confusing and tragic time in your life. It will be mentioned but good luck actually getting the help you want.In Regional Hospice Center on Milestone Road in Danbury should not be considered either unless your loved one requires a glamorous, image conscience environment and can pay $550 per day to be there. It is MONEY first and image second. Most of what would be done by paid employees is done by very nice volunteers who are there in large numbers each day. I think it is a top heavy, highly paid administration though. Any encounter I had with an administrator was terse and aggressive- a power trip in nature- (once again as if we were to be scolded for asking a question.) There is something very wrong with this organization and my entire family and the friends who visited our family member all felt it. It is not at all what one would think of as a comforting, caring environment where everything (or anything) is done to give the patient "the quality of life out of whatever time is left." It is, at best like staying at a spa, a resort or an overpriced hotel. A day or two--if highly decorated surroundings are important--but from experience, I would seriously consider a place where the family and patient's wishes are not consistently and blatantly ignored.