Employee Spotlight: Debbie Brewer

Name: Debbie Brewer, Intake Coordinator

How long have you worked here?

Nine years this July.

What made you decide to work here?

I had a friend that had worked here and I had been going back to school to be a medical assistant. I got my certification in phlebotomy and medical billing, and my friend told me there was a position opening up as an intake coordinator.  I’ve always enjoyed working with people and I felt that I needed to have a change in my career…I felt that I needed to do something more in my life.

How had you heard of Angela Hospice?

My father was an Angela Hospice patient in 1995. We had Angela Hospice for three days before he died, and the three days were wonderful. They were short but they were wonderful. It was a very good experience so that made me think that maybe I should switch careers in my life.

What’s a typical day like for you?

I’m on the phone a lot. We gather information about patients and we’re also explaining to patients’ families how home hospice services work. So I’m here to give them information but then offer support and tell them about the great services that we do offer.

The other piece of my job is the Care Center. I bring patients into our Care Center when we have rooms available. I’m back and forth a lot with hospitals or nursing homes, trying to coordinate patients’ coming to our facility if we have a room available.

Debbie is an Intake Coordinator and has worked at
Angela Hospice for almost nine years.

What is your favorite part about working at Angela Hospice?

My favorite part is being able to help people. The Care Center, for a lot of families, is important to them. For instance, there was a family that was just so grateful – tearfully grateful – that we had a room available that we could bring their parent into our Care Center. I think just being able to help people, offer support to patients’ families, because it is a difficult phone call for them to make. In fact, I just got off the phone with a patient’s family, it was very difficult for her to call but she felt that it was time for our services.

Everybody’s great to work with in my area, and just Angela Hospice staff as a whole – everybody’s very supportive. Everyone works very well together as a team. As I say, “There’s no I in team!”

What is one of your favorite memories from your time at Angela Hospice?

Again, I would say it was probably the patient that I had brought into the Care Center whose family was just so grateful because they didn’t know what they were going to do. They were working, and it was just…they couldn’t care for their loved one at home and they were just so grateful and thankful that we were able to bring their loved one into the Care Center here and take care of them.