Pathway Home’s mission is to provide a home-like environment for terminally ill persons in need of 24-hour care. Our goal is to provide our residents and their families with quality care and emotional support.
We never charge residents or their families. Funding for operating expenses depends on donations and fund raising.
Comfort Care Homes all work on the same model – caring for one or two people at a time with the help of trained volunteers and staff, providing care at no cost to the resident or their family. A hospice program supports the care with nursing and social work. Each Comfort Care Home acts independently, choosing patients based on its own assessment of who has the greatest need of their help.
Hospice is a service provided by a certified home health agency and paid for by Medicare. Pathway Home is a home where the staff and volunteers become the resident's "extended family," and provide 24-hour care, seven days a week. Residents of Pathway receive hospice service from Rochester Regional Health Home Care and Hospice.
Admission to Pathway Home is based solely on need, without regard to religion, age, sex or race. The prospective resident must desire comfort care and have a medical prognosis of three months or less.
Pathway Home is unable to accept every person who is referred and can only care for up to two residents at one time. Each case is evaluated carefully and priority is given to those people who have the greatest need at the time; i.e., those who are at home with inadequate support. Other considerations involve the complexity of nursing care that some people may require.
Pathway Home is not a hospital or nursing home. We do not use IV fluids or feeding tubes and each resident must have a signed DNR (do not resuscitate) order. When a bed is available, our team evaluates all who are waiting, and choose the one who has the greatest need; not who is next on the list.
Our residents come primarily from Seneca, Ontario and Wayne counties.
Referrals come from hospitals, physicians, social workers, case managers, discharge planners, clergy, friends and family members, neighbors and certified home health agencies such as Rochester Regional Health Home Care and Hospice or Ontario-Yates Hospice.
At times there may be remission of a person’s disease, and it may be necessary to be discharged from Pathway Home to an alternative placement, such as home. It's amazing to see that with some conditions, proper symptom control management, socialization and tender loving care, people live longer than what was expected. The staff at Pathway Home will work closely with the Hospice team and family to determine the best alternative placement.
Pathway Home is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization. The services provided to residents and their families cost approximately $200 per day, per resident. Pathway does not receive any insurance payments.
Pathway Home is staffed with a house manager and paid overnight care givers. Care during the day is provided by volunteers. Residents must be enrolled in Hospice, which provides additional support such as nurses to advise our staff on symptom management. Pathway staff and volunteers provide coverage 24 hours a day.
We do not restrict visitation. We ask only that visitors be sensitive to the needs of the patients in the home. Visits by well-mannered pets also are allowed.