Local, Personalized, Quality Hospice Care Since 1986

Our knowledgeable and compassionate Hospice Satilla interdisciplinary hospice teams provide comprehensive services, focused on meeting your individual needs and those of your family.

Team members include your own attending physician, a Hospice Satilla physician, nurses, social workers, chaplains, home health aides, and volunteers.

We work together to:

• Help manage pain and other symptoms.
• Provided needed medications, medical supplies, and equipment.
• Guide family members on how to care for a loved one and what to expect along the way.
• Assist with personal care needs, such as bathing and changing linens.
• Support the emotional and spiritual aspects of preparing for the end of life.
• Help with practical matters from volunteers who provide companionship and give caregivers a break.
• Offer individual and family bereavement counseling, grief support groups and educational events.

Where is care provided?

Many people receive care from Hospice Satilla in their own home or assisted living community, where a loved one can assist as primary caregiver. Our staff make regular visits and are available by phone 24/7.

For those living in long-term care facilities or receiving care in a hospital, Hospice Satilla works side-by-side with facility staff to help ensure that pain and symptoms are managed — providing an extra layer of care and support to patients and their families.

If pain or symptoms become too difficult to manage at home, short-term care is available at our homelike inpatient center the Donald Waters Center for Caring Hospice House. The Hospice House is a five-bed unit and staffed around the clock by a highly qualified nursing staff. The Hospice House is a short stay unit and patients must meet a certain criterion to be admitted for general inpatient (GIP).

When is it time to call?

We can admit patients with a limited life expectancy of 6 months or less if the illness runs its normal course. While illness can affect how a person lives his or her life, so much can be done to improve physical comfort and well-being. Hospice Satilla is available as soon as you need us — the earlier we are involved, the greater the benefits to you and your family.

Hospice Satilla services are covered by Medicare, Medicaid, and most private insurance plans. As a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, we are committed to improving the quality of life for all in need of our care throughout our service area, regardless of race, religion, or their ability to pay.

Hospice Satilla is a community-based, non-profit organization and we receive donations from generous supporters in the community for unfunded and under-funded care and services. Many people become involved as volunteers and also give back to our organization through gifts that memorialize a loved one or leave a legacy that supports future care.

Why Hospice Satilla?

Since 1986, Hospice Satilla has provided specialized end-of-life care for patients with all types of advanced illnesses along with a variety of support services for family members.

When you or a loved one is facing advanced illness, we are here to help. You do not have to face this difficult time alone. We work to meet your needs and wishes, while respectfully guiding and empowering you and your family members with knowledge and ongoing support

Our focus is to provide comfort, maintain dignity, and improve a patient’s quality of life. Receiving hospice care does not mean giving up. Hospice is about how you live.

• Thanks to generous donors who support our mission, we have never and will never turn away a patient because they cannot pay for their end-of-life care. That’s why annual fundraising events like our Butterfly Run, Cowboys for Kids, and Silver Bowl Gala are so important!
• Medicare’s “Hospice Benefit” covers everything from care at home to diapers, pull-ups, and all of the necessities we need to provide the highest quality care in Southeast Georgia for their enrollees.
• We uniquely provide “palliative care” to help patients who do not have a terminal diagnosis but need treatment for their pain and symptoms as a result of their condition (cancer, COPD, heart issues, etc.).
• As your non-profit hospice, we will never turn away a patient in need of palliative or hospice care. We feel it is our responsibility to care for you, our friends and neighbors.

Hospice House: The Donald Waters Center for Caring opened in 2010, thanks to the generosity of Dr. Donald Waters and his family. Our hospice house, a five-bed general inpatient unit, is the only one of its kind in our area. Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, our compassionate staff treats our patient’s acute symptoms in a home-like setting with the goal of returning them to their home quickly once stabilized. Our around-the-clock care gives family members respite from caregiving for their loved one. To help the caregiver when they return home, we teach them proper wound care, and other helpful tips.

For our veteran patients, we display their branch of service flag outside their room in the hospice house to honor their service and sacrifices.

Grief Support: If you or someone you know has experienced the death of a loved one, the support of others can play an invaluable role in the healing process.

Hospice Satilla social workers and chaplains offer individual and family counseling to patients and their loved ones (both adults and children) while the patient is receiving hospice care. We also offer individual and family counseling for family members and loved ones of our patients after the death.

Our counselors have experience supporting a variety of losses, including sudden and traumatic death. We offer therapeutic grief support groups several times throughout the year, community- wide educational workshops, children’s grief camps and other services to all members of the community. You do not have to be involved with hospice to receive bereavement assistance, and there is no charge for our services.