Hermitage, TN - TriStar Summit Medical Center has expanded their Spiritual services to now include “No One Dies Alone” for patients. “This program expansion developed from a need to care for our patients who do not have family local,” says Tim Taylor, Chaplain at TriStar Summit Medical Center. “The idea came from our internal Spiritual Committee. After researching and development of a Summit specific program a subcommittee was formed to begin program development. Once developed we took the program to hospital administrators. With their full support we shared with our nursing staff. The entire process took approximately a year to develop, train and educate staff. Currently we have 35 trained employees and 5 on a waiting list,” stated Taylor.
Staff and clergy work tirelessly to provide comfort to our patients dying alone. Individuals in this situation often don’t want to be alone and just offering time and the presence of another person can help. The TriStar Summit Medical Center NODA team of trained staff are supported and involved with nursing to provide a service that wasn’t offered before.
The program model was from Sacred Heart Medical Center, Sandra Clark founder of NODA. Another valuable resource was “A Caregiver’s Guide to the Dying Process” from Hospice Foundation of America. Our program was built from these 2 programs, customized for our facility’s needs.