For hospice teams and the families they serve
A hospice team has usually spent weeks with a family by the time we are called. Our job is to take the next part off their hands without any of that continuity breaking.
That the cremation can be arranged without anybody leaving the house. Every authorization is signed electronically, from the bedside or from another state, and there is no appointment to keep and no office to visit. For a family who has been holding vigil for a fortnight, that is not a convenience, it is the difference between grieving and driving.
That the price is published and written down before anything is authorized. Our service fee is $1,095, the same figure in every county we serve, and three things are charged separately on that same written price: certified death certificate copies at the county rate, the alternative cremation container Florida law requires, and a medical examiner fee in the counties that charge one. Worth relaying as carefully as the figure itself, because a family told a round number and later handed a larger one loses trust in everybody who touched the case, including you.
And that they can name us now rather than later. A family who has already chosen a funeral establishment is spared the one decision that tends to be made badly, under pressure, from a list handed over at the worst possible moment.
Call the hospice nurse first. Under hospice care the nurse makes the pronouncement and starts the paperwork that everything else depends on, and calling anybody before them only adds a step. If the patient is at home, there is no need to call 911, and doing so brings an emergency response the family does not want and does not need.
Then call us, at (239) 207-0390. A licensed funeral director answers directly at any hour, not an answering service, and transport is usually dispatched while the family is still on the telephone.
When the hospice asks which funeral establishment the family has chosen, the answer is Simple Affordable Cremations. That one sentence is what releases your loved one into our care, and it is worth writing down in advance so nobody has to remember it in the moment.
If the death occurs in a hospice house, a hospital or a nursing facility rather than at home, the sequence is the same: the facility is told which establishment has been named, and we deal with them from there.
The attachments a family forms with a hospice team are real, and a handover that treats us as a separate transaction undoes a great deal of that work. We ask for very little from a family that hospice has already gathered, we take the rest gently over the telephone, and the same director stays with the family from the first call through to the day the cremated remains come home.
Bereavement support does not end at the cremation either. Clergy and licensed social workers are available to any family we serve, at no charge, for the person who wants to talk to somebody and does not know who to ask. Some families use it in the first week and some six months later, which is generally when it is needed most.
We are glad to work alongside a hospice bereavement programme rather than around it. If your team already has one, tell us and we will point families back to you.
You can call us before a death to ask anything on a family’s behalf, and you will not be treated as a lead. If a family wants the price in writing, we will send it. If they want to know who in the family is legally authorized to authorize a cremation under Florida law, we will walk through it with them, which is far easier to settle while there is still time.
We serve 54 Florida counties with local transport, in English and Spanish, and a licensed funeral director answers the telephone 24 hours a day. There is never a charge for a question.
The hospice nurse. Under hospice care the nurse pronounces the death and begins the paperwork everything else depends on. If the patient is at home there is no need to call 911. Once the nurse has been, call us on (239) 207-0390 and name Simple Affordable Cremations as the funeral establishment; a licensed director answers at any hour and transport is usually dispatched during that call.
Yes, and we would encourage it. Naming a funeral establishment in advance costs nothing, commits the family to nothing, and removes the one decision families most often regret making in a hurry. We can also put the price in writing and settle who is legally authorized to authorize the cremation, which is what usually takes the longest afterwards.
Yes. Clergy and licensed social workers are available at no charge to any family we serve, for as long as it is useful. Many families reach for it months later rather than in the first week. If the hospice has its own bereavement programme we will work alongside it and point the family back to you.
A licensed funeral director will answer any question from a family, a nurse or a social worker, at any hour. There is no cost to call and no obligation of any kind.
Call (239) 207-0390Answered 24 hours, 7 days · Se habla español