The Care Team Hospice

The Care Team Hospice operates a branch office at 5325 Northgate Drive in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, serving patients and families across the Lehigh Valley and the surrounding communities of Northampton and Lehigh counties. The organization provides hospice care, a form of medical and supportive service designed for people facing a terminal illness who have decided, together with their physicians and families, to focus on comfort and quality of life rather than curative treatment. The Bethlehem location functions as an administrative and clinical hub: care itself is delivered wherever the patient lives, which may be a private home, the residence of a family member, an assisted living community, a personal care home or a skilled nursing facility.

The Care Team is a multi-state hospice and home health provider that has expanded from its original base in the Midwest into Pennsylvania and other states. Like other Medicare-certified hospice agencies, it operates under the federal hospice benefit, which structures how services are delivered, what is covered and how often a patient is reassessed for eligibility. Families in the Bethlehem area generally reach the office by phone at +1 610-841-4410.

What Hospice Care Includes

Hospice is not a single service but a coordinated package of care delivered by an interdisciplinary team. Under the Medicare hospice benefit, that team typically includes a hospice physician or medical director, registered nurses, hospice aides, a social worker, a chaplain or spiritual care counselor, bereavement staff and trained volunteers. Each member addresses a different dimension of the patient's situation, and the team meets regularly to review the plan of care and adjust it as the illness progresses.

Services commonly provided through a hospice program such as this one include:

• Routine home visits by registered nurses to assess symptoms, manage pain, monitor medications and teach families what to expect
• Personal care visits from hospice aides for bathing, grooming, dressing and other daily needs
• Medications, medical equipment and supplies related to the terminal diagnosis, including hospital beds, oxygen, wheelchairs, walkers and incontinence supplies
• Medical social work, which covers advance directives, benefit questions, funeral planning guidance, caregiver stress and connections to community resources
• Spiritual care that is offered across faith traditions and is always optional
• Volunteer companionship and respite for family caregivers
• Bereavement support for surviving family members, generally available for up to thirteen months after a death
• On-call nursing availability outside regular business hours for urgent symptom changes

Medicare also recognizes several levels of hospice care beyond routine home care. Continuous home care provides extended nursing hours during a period of acute symptom crisis. General inpatient care allows for short-term admission to a contracted facility when symptoms cannot be managed at home. Respite care offers a brief inpatient stay so that family caregivers can rest. A hospice provider coordinates movement between these levels based on what the patient needs at a given moment.

Admission and Eligibility

Eligibility for the hospice benefit requires certification by two physicians, usually the hospice medical director and the patient's attending physician, that the person has a life expectancy of six months or less if the illness follows its expected course. That prognosis is a clinical estimate rather than a deadline. Patients who live longer than six months can be recertified and continue receiving care, and patients who improve or who decide to pursue curative treatment again may revoke the benefit and return to it later.

Referrals may come from a hospital discharge planner, a primary care physician, a specialist, a nursing facility or directly from a family member. No one needs a physician referral to ask questions or request an informational visit. An intake nurse or liaison typically explains the benefit, reviews the patient's medical records, confirms eligibility and arranges an admission visit. In the Lehigh Valley, where hospital systems, skilled nursing facilities and personal care homes are concentrated across Bethlehem, Allentown and Easton, coordination with those institutions is a routine part of the intake process.

One practical point families often do not realize is how quickly admission can occur. Hospice referrals frequently arrive at a point of crisis, after a hospitalization, a fall or a sudden decline, and agencies are equipped to complete an admission on the same day when circumstances require it, including evenings and weekends.

Cost and Coverage

For patients enrolled in Medicare Part A, the hospice benefit covers services, medications, equipment and supplies related to the terminal diagnosis, generally with little or no out-of-pocket cost. Pennsylvania Medical Assistance offers a comparable hospice benefit, and most commercial insurance plans include hospice coverage as well. Staff at the Bethlehem office can review a specific policy and explain what is and is not included, including how coverage applies to medications unrelated to the hospice diagnosis and how room and board is handled when a patient resides in a nursing facility.

Location and Accessibility

The Northgate Drive address sits in the northern section of Bethlehem, within reach of Route 22 and Route 512, which makes it accessible to families traveling from Allentown, Easton, Nazareth, Whitehall, Bath and the surrounding townships. The office has a wheelchair accessible entrance and a wheelchair accessible parking lot, which matters for visitors who may be arriving with a mobility device or accompanying an elderly relative. Most family interaction, however, happens by phone or in the patient's home, since hospice staff travel to the patient rather than the other way around.

Practical Information for Families

People considering hospice for a relative often benefit from calling before a decision is urgent. An informational conversation carries no obligation and does not enroll anyone in a program. Questions worth asking any hospice provider include how quickly a nurse responds after hours, how often visits occur, which inpatient facilities the agency contracts with for general inpatient and respite care, what bereavement services are offered and how the agency communicates with the patient's existing physicians.

Families should also know that choosing hospice does not mean giving up medical treatment. It redirects treatment toward comfort, symptom relief and support for the household as a whole. Much of the work a hospice team does involves preparing families for what is ahead, explaining medication schedules, teaching safe transfer techniques and describing the physical changes that accompany the final weeks and days so that nothing comes as a shock.

The Bethlehem office can be reached at +1 610-841-4410 for referrals, admission questions, insurance verification or general information about hospice eligibility in the Lehigh Valley.