Home Care & Hospice of New England is now HopeHealth, based in Providence

WITH RE-BRANDING ITSELF AS HopeHealth, the former Home Care & Hospice of New England and its three affiliated organizations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts are looking to grow their footprint even more.
WITH RE-BRANDING ITSELF AS HopeHealth, the former Home Care & Hospice of New England and its three affiliated organizations in Rhode Island and Massachusetts are looking to grow their footprint even more.

PROVIDENCE – Home Care & Hospice of New England has rebranded itself. Its new name is HopeHealth, effective Monday, March 14. HopeHealth, a nonprofit organization based in Providence, includes three affiliated entities: Providence-based Hope Hospice & Palliative Care Rhode Island, formerly Home & Hospice Care of Rhode Island; Lincoln-based Visiting Nurse of HopeHealth, formerly Visiting Nurse Home Care; and Hyannis, Mass.-based HopeHealth Massachusetts, formerly HopeHealth. The two Rhode Island organizations affiliated in 2012 under the Home Care & Hospice of New England name and shared a common board. The affiliation between Home Care & Hospice of New England and HopeHealth became effective Jan 1, 2016.

“There’s no change in commitment, [we have the] same caregivers and the same phone number. The only changes are the name and logo,” said Diana Franchitto, HopeHealth’s president and CEO. “The word ‘hope’ [reflects] what we do every day … in the patient care that we provide,” she said. Making this change was “not a tough decision,” as the nonprofit’s work is certainly embedded with hope, said Franchitto.

Acknowledging that people undergo an adjustment period about such changes, Franchitto promises a broad communications campaign reaching patients, families and donors as well as community, business and government leaders regarding the new branding. The new website, HopeHealthRI.org, supplants hhcri.org, and all emails will migrate over, said Franchitto, who joined Home & Hospice Care of Rhode Island in 2007 as vice president, marketing & development, and became CEO in 2008.

Hope Hospice & Palliative Care Rhode Island is the second oldest hospice in the country. Its affiliation with Brown University’s Warren Alpert Medical School for hospice and palliative medicine is the only one of its kind in the United States. Visiting Nurse of HopeHealth, a community-based home health care provider, offers coordinated care to meet the full range of home care and palliative care services to patients in Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. Finally, HopeHealth Massachusetts delivers a wide range of medical care and support services to individuals and families experiencing serious loss and illness in eastern Massachusetts.

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HopeHealth’s board, which has equal representation from the Massachusetts and Rhode Island facilities, is comprised entirely of members of the boards of the former HopeHealth and the former Home Care & Hospice of New England. In total, HopeHealth has $75 million in annual revenue; of that, roughly $30 million comes from the Massachusetts entity and $45 million from the Rhode Island entities.

Through this latest affiliation, HopeHealth is now a regional provider, which opens up future growth opportunities, said Franchitto. Hope Hospice & Palliative Care of Rhode Island is already growing, with the recently-opened Hope Palliative Care Center, the first free-standing palliative care outpatient clinic in the state, near the Philip Hulitar Hospice Center, in Providence.
During calendar year 2015, the Massachusetts entity served 1,480 patients, and the Rhode Island facilities served 3,760 hospice patients and cared for 2,210 palliative care patients. Currently, there are 420 employees in Rhode Island and 200 in Massachusetts, said Franchitto. “As the organizations grow, we will continue to add employees, but that’s the foundation [now].”

In addition to leading HopeHealth, Franchitto serves as president and CEO of the three affiliated organizations, which have transitioned to a shared services model. All the supporting infrastructures and departments needed to support clinical operations, such as IT, HR, finance, quality and compliance, etc., have been unified, Franchitto said. Still to come, however, is a complete assessment of best practices at each organization and how they can be shared with the other entities. That process is ongoing, she said, as is developing a corporate culture that “takes the best of the best” from each entity. “The ability to integrate both organizations smoothly and well will be a challenge; it’s a big undertaking,” said Franchitto.

“We’re very excited about our new name as it’s so reflective of what we do,” she said.

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