HCI Care Services has addressed deficiencies

Lee Rood on Jan. 9 highlighted West Des Moines-based HCI Care Services in a brief summary of a Huffington Post report of hospice violations nationwide ["Reader's Watchdog: West Des Moines hospice named one of nation's worst"]. What the article did not say was that the HCI Care Services' violations were received over a 10-year period of serving more than 12,000 people. Nor did it note that only a handful of those violations occurred in the past five years under the watchful eye of the current CEO and her leadership team. All of these deficiencies have long been addressed and corrected by HCI Care Services, a nonprofit that embraces transparency, welcomes every opportunity for improvement, takes patient care very seriously and was used by my family when my mother was terminally ill in 1998.

For 15 years I have been a weekly volunteer at HCI Care Services' Kavanagh House on 56th Street. I have helped raise funds for the organization's Bright Kavanagh House on Easton and currently serve on HCI Foundation, an entity that works to ensure that everyone needing hospice services within the organization's 41-county territory will be cared for regardless of ability to pay. Providing dignity, independence and quality of life is taken quite seriously by HCI Care Services, and the organization's attention to continuous improvement is always a top priority. I'm proud to be associated with this organization, its staff and its volunteers.

— Pam Schoffner, Ankeny