Angela's Telehospice Program Awarded for Innovation

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From left: Christie Laster, Community Responsibility for BCBSM; Angela Hospice's telehospice team members Colleen Monfette, Karen Gugala, Kelly Kovach-Collicott; and Katie Wendel, Senior Manager of Advocacy for Area Agency on Aging 1-B.











Angela Hospice's telehospice services team was proud to accept the Silver Key Coalition Tess Canja Innovation Award sponsored by Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Michigan on October 17. The award was presented at the Aging Matters Expo held at the Fellowship Chapel in Detroit.

Named in honor of Tess Canja, a lifelong advocate for compassionate elder care, the Silver Key Coalition Tess Canja Innovation Award is given to agencies that work to improve health-related situations for older adults.

Our Telehospice Program includes an easy to
use tablet device that enables patients and
caregivers to talk face to face with an Angela
Hospice nurse 24/7.
Angela Hospice's telehospice program, made possible through a grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation, was launched in 2017 as a complementary component of our traditional home care program. Using tablet devices to employ Angela's Virtual Assist (AVA), the telehospice program was initially conceived primarily with patient comfort in mind – facilitating ease of communication, fast response times, and personalized face-to-face contact – but the impact of the program on patient caregivers has proven to be equally notable.

For many family members, this is their first experience caring for a loved one with a serious illness, and it can feel overwhelming at times. But these family caregivers have said they feel much more at ease having the AVA device in the home – even when they are not actively using it. Its presence there has a calming effect, and it is a reminder of the fact that they are not alone.

Caregiver Darren S. wrote, “With the tablet it felt like I had a team ready in the next room whenever I needed them...the tablet contact gave me so much confidence.”

As caregiver Ann M. explained, “Any time I had a question or mini-emergency, the AVA pad was a direct link to the help and reassurance I needed.”

Another caregiver described how the AVA device enabled both herself and her husband (the patient) to hear the answers to their questions. The device facilitated the patient being more directly involved in his own care than traditional on-call phone support would have, bringing comfort to them both.

"I love that we can get AVA and Angela Hospice out there to show this amazing gift we have, and how it helps people," said Karen Gugala, who helps coordinate the telehospice program and accepted the award on Angela Hospice's behalf.

"While technology can be imagined as cold or impersonal, with the rollout of our telehospice program, we have seen how the opposite can also be true," added Lisa Norton, Angela Hospice's Development and Communications Coordinator. "With the implementation of telehospice as an added element to our traditional home hospice program, we have seen the truly personal, comforting impact that technology can bring, when it is pursued with innovation and empathetic concern."

For more about telehospice, and to watch a video demonstration of how the program works, visit https://angelahospice.org/telehospice/.


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