Faith Home Health and Hospice continues HCH services

Last September, Holton Community Hospital announced that it would close its award-winning home health and hospice department by the end of the year.

Enter Kansas City-based Faith Home Health and Hospice, which has been working with staff from the HCH home health and hospice department since November to ensure that those services continue for those in the Jackson County area who need them.

Faith chief executive officer Bev Kimzey, noting that her firm is under contract with HCH to purchase the department, saw taking over management of the department and continuing those services in this area — especially with HCH’s home health and hospice staff intact — as “a win-win.”

“Our intention is to continue to grow the agency,” Kimzey said. “Right now, we're servicing Jackson County out of that agency, and we've added Pottawatomie County to the service area. We're expanding as our staff grows.”

Kimzey said retaining the hospital’s local staff within the new structure, ensuring that patients continue to experience the same compassionate care they have come to trust, is paramount to the continued success of the department.

“We provide the nursing and therapy services on our home health side and nursing and social work services on our hospice side for patients who are dealing with end-of-life issues,” she said. “As an agency, as a whole, it's important to us that we service rural areas and provide all the necessary services.”

Kimzey said that word reached Faith Home Health and Hospice’s upper management that HCH’s home health and hospice department had announced its impending closure, and that prompted the company to reach out to and work with Lutz on a management agreement.

“Right now, we’re under a purchase contract with them,” Kimzey said. “For us, it was important to keep the office in the community.”

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