Hospice & Palliative Care Association of Arkansas

11/06/2025

Thank you, Care-XM, for celebrating hospice and palliative care professionals and championing our mission.

Care-XM helps healthcare organizations deliver an exceptional care experience by providing EMR-integrated triage support. Care-XM recently spent time in Arkansas with us for the HPCAA Annual Conference - it was great having them here! 💜

This month, we celebrate the incredible caregivers who embody the heart of hospice and palliative care, guiding patients and families with compassion through life’s most meaningful moments.

We’re honored to stand beside you, supporting the mission of comfort, connection, and care that never clocks out.

11/06/2025

Hospice helps people live well by:

Prioritizing Comfort: The primary goal is to manage pain and other symptoms to ensure the patient is as comfortable as possible, allowing them to focus on what is meaningful to them.

Holistic Support: Hospice provides more than just medical care. It includes emotional, spiritual, and social support for the patient and their loved ones through services like counseling, grief support, volunteer visits, and pet therapy.

Promoting Dignity: Hospice care is focused on dignity. It avoids the aggressive procedures and equipment associated with curative treatments, allowing individuals to live in a setting of their choice, surrounded by loved ones.

Empowering the Patient: By shifting the focus from cure to comfort, hospice allows patients to regain a sense of control over their life and make choices that align with their values and wishes.

Supporting the Family: Hospice care extends to the family, providing support, education, respite care, and bereavement services to help them navigate the end-of-life journey.

11/01/2025

November is National Hospice and Palliative Care Month. Each November, we come together to recognize the extraordinary impact of hospice and palliative care across our communities.

At HPCAA, we are proud to champion compassionate care for all Arkansans. To the providers across this state, thank you for the exceptional way you walk alongside families during some of life’s most meaningful moments — offering comfort, guidance, and understanding when it matters most.

All month long, we will be shining a light on what makes this type of healthcare so special.

10/31/2025

🎉 Congratulations 🎉

HPCAA would like to congratulate Gregory A. Wood on his appointment to the Arkansas Health Services Permit Commission! 👏

This appointment is well-deserved and reflects Greg's exceptional leadership, commitment to our industry, and dedication to advancing healthcare services in our state.

The Health Services Permit Commission plays a vital role in ensuring the appropriate distribution of health care providers so that Arkansas communities have access to high-quality and sustainable health services.

Greg, HPCAA is grateful to have you as its Board President and representing the hospice community on this commission. We know you will make a meaningful impact in this important position. Congratulations again on this outstanding achievement! 👏

Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced Thursday the appointment of several people, including two men from Northeast Arkansas, to state boards and commissions.

09/20/2025

Jodie McGinley, LFD, EOLD, CT is an extraordinary young woman and a true end-of-life advocate. A teacher by degree, Jodie went on to become a licensed funeral director and holds a Certification in Thanatology: Death, Dying, Loss, and Bereavement from the Association for Death Education and Counseling. She currently serves as Executive Director of the Willow Award: Excellence in End-of-Life Care, an initiative that honors extraordinary professionals in end-of-life care. When she’s not meeting with nominating families, Jodie serves as the Director of Hospice Relations and Bereavement Education for Smith Family Funeral Homes, partnering with local hospices and healthcare teams to provide educational programs that foster meaningful conversations around grief and death.

Throughout the conference we will be taking a look at the care experience from different perspectives. Probably the most important perspective of all is that of the patient and/or caregiver. In Jodie's presentation she shares all about Elijah and the transformative power of compassionate care that she experienced firsthand as a young mom.

"It is not supposed to happen this way. We have two car seats fastened in the car…" Those words still echo in Jodie’s mind as she recalls the shock and heartbreak of learning her twin son’s prognosis while facing end-of-life decisions.

Jodie’s life was forever changed as she witnessed two exceptional Arkansas healthcare teams come together to provide untraditional care that was both compassionate and transformative. That experience revealed how care given in a person’s final moments can profoundly shape the grief and healing of those left behind.

This is the story of how compassionate comfort care transformed a mother’s grief into a mission of service—through empathy, connection, education, and recognition. “If a family can walk through their darkest chapter with even a glimmer of positivity, then you know you’ve done an exceptional job.”

09/18/2025

Meet Shelley Henry, RN, CPHRM, CHPN — a distinguished leader in hospice nursing with over two decades of invaluable experience. From hands-on caregiving to strategic leadership as Executive VP of Corporate Compliance, Shelley's journey through the hospice landscape is a testament to her unwavering commitment to excellence.
Recognized for her steadfast advocacy and innovative approach to end-of-life care, Shelley is renowned within the hospice community for her exceptional expertise and dedication.

With a keen focus on hospice staffing and documentation, Shelley has earned acclaim as a foremost authority in these pivotal areas. Her insightful presentations at industry events reflect a deep understanding cultivated over years of direct involvement in hospice care.

As the driving force behind The Amity Group, Shelley leads a pioneering staffing firm dedicated exclusively to serving hospice organizations. Her visionary leadership has propelled The Amity Group to the forefront of tailored staffing solutions, meeting the unique needs of hospice providers nationwide.

In addition to her entrepreneurial ventures, Shelley is a prolific author, contributing two seminal works on hospice documentation. Her innovative spirit extends beyond writing to product development, where she spearheads initiatives aimed at optimizing care delivery in hospice settings.

As a sought-after consultant, Shelley lends her expertise to organizations seeking to establish or enhance their hospice programs. Through her role as an educator, she shares her wealth of knowledge and best practices, nurturing the next generation of hospice professionals.

At the heart of Shelley's endeavors lies a steadfast commitment to elevating the standards of hospice care. This commitment is exemplified in her creation of the Hospice Nurse Your Opinion Matters Survey—a groundbreaking initiative aimed at amplifying the voices of hospice nurses and driving positive change within the industry.

In every aspect of her multifaceted career, Shelley Henry embodies excellence, dedication, and compassion, leaving an enduring impact on the field of hospice nursing and inspiring countless individuals to uphold the highest standards of care for those nearing life's end.

In Shelley's first presentation, “Acuity-Based Staffing: The Key to Sustainable Caseload and Quality Care”, we will dive into the unique dynamics of hospice acuity-based staffing, which differs greatly from hospital models. We’ll examine the three critical areas that must be considered when aligning staffing with patient needs, and I’ll introduce a simple, practical tool I developed to make assigning acuity straightforward. Attendees will leave with a clear framework for easing staffing challenges while supporting manageable caseloads and consistent quality of care.

In her second presentation, “Thriving in the Metrics Era: Keeping Hospice Care Human and Sustainable”, we will explore today’s productivity-driven climate and what it means for hospice leaders and clinicians. Together we’ll examine practical strategies to not only navigate the pressures of “productivity” but to thrive in them, preserving both the humanity of hospice care and the sustainability of our work.

09/17/2025

Dr. Chris Bierman will be joining us for the conference next week! He trained in Internal Medicine from 2013-2016 with Drexel University at Hahnemann Hospital. Then, he went on to train at Wake Forest for his Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship from 2016-2017. He has been a hospice physician since finishing his fellowship, working in inpatient hospice mostly, with some home-based hospice. Dr. Bierman became an Arkansan in 2024, and continued his career in inpatient hospice and inpatient palliative care consults with Arkansas Hospice, soon to be LifeTouch Hospice.

If you've worked in this industry for any length of time you've probably had a patient on many medications. Sometimes all of those medications are beneficial, and sometimes they are not. Dr. Bierman will be leading us in a conversation about de-prescribing. We will discuss the benefits of reducing pill burden as our patients near the end of life. Dr. Bierman will also share how he approaches these conversations with patients and their families.

09/09/2025

Providing ethically-based healthcare services is essential to being a high-quality healthcare provider. So an ethics conversation is a must for the conference! Dr. Brandy Fox will lead us as we consider the ethical implications regarding sexuality in persons with dementia.

Brandy M. Fox, PhD, MS, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She received her PhD in Health Care Ethics from Saint Louis University and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Stanford University supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute’s Ethical Legal and Social Implications (ELSI) Program. Dr. Fox’s scholarly interests include qualitative research, end of life care, and psychiatric ethics.

09/08/2025

We are only TWO weeks away from our annual conference! So, let's get to know a few more of our speakers.

Greg Adams, LCSW, ACSW, FT is Program Coordinator for the Center for Good Mourning and Staff Bereavement Support at Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH). Greg has worked at ACH in a variety of roles and areas, including pediatric oncology and palliative care, since 1991. He is an adjunct professor with the University of Arkansas-Little Rock and has been an active volunteer with community and professional organizations, including the Little Rock School District. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024 for the National Association of Social Workers-Arkansas Chapter. He is also author of Adam Gets Back in the Game, a children’s storybook about coping with grief and loss.

In Greg's presentation, we will explore storytelling in medicine. Everyone has a story as we make sense of our lives through stories. Our patients, their families, ourselves, our teams, and our cultures each have their own stories, and frequently a serious illness is a threat to our stories as well as an invitation for story revisions. Too often, however, we miss the stories, and in doing so, we miss opportunities to better understand and support our patients and families and to see where their stories and ours have areas of common ground and points of conflict. In this presentation, we will pause and reflect on storytelling and how greater awareness and understanding of stories can support our patients and our work.

09/05/2025

HPCAA is pleased to announce the Heart Award recipients for 2025. This prestigious award honors Arkansans in the hospice and palliative care industries that go above and beyond to enhance the quality of life for patients, families, and/or their team.

Everyone who was nominated is truly extraordinary in the work that they do. Similar to a "Best of the Best" award, these recipients were chosen as best in their category (Hospice, Palliative Care, Hospice CNA, and Volunteer) by judges who spent weeks poring over all of the nominations.

2025 HPCAA Heart Award recipients - CONGRATULATIONS 🎉 and thank you for all that you do! We look forward to honoring you with a special ceremony and luncheon in a few weeks at our annual conference. See you soon!