When John Freeman and DJ Leaverton founded Honor Hospice in 2013, they wanted it to be different from the hospices where they had worked before. They decided Honor would be owned by physicians — unique in Colorado — with a physician-based standard of care.
And they placed a strong emphasis on values and ethics. That focus has earned the hospice a Special Award in its first time on this year’s top small workplaces survey.
“Honor gives off a people-first, money-second vibe and that is what separates Honor from other hospices/organizations,” wrote a survey respondent.
“It’s genuine,” wrote another.
“We left companies that played cloak and dagger,” Leaverton says. “They always had an agenda. There was always something left unsaid, or the truth was stretched. When we started Honor, we didn’t want to be that. We wanted to be transparent. Our employees feel that.”
Despite some organizations’ focus on the bottom line, Freeman says “hospice has to be very pure and very true. Values and ethics are really important when it comes to death and dying. We take what we do very very seriously. It’s the legacy we leave with the patient’s family.”
Hospice work has been a “life calling” for Freeman, he says. “You don’t get into hospice because you want it to be easy. We always take care of patients and families first. We will never shortchange that.”
That extends to Honor employees as well.
Managers meet one on one with employees. “They know they’re not lost in the shuffle, and they always know where they stand,” Leaverton says.
In addition, Honor holds what it calls circles, made up of eight to 12 employees, all of whom have been with the hospice for different lengths of time. Employees address specific issues in the circles as a way of team building and connecting with one another.
“We care about our reputation, and the entire team works very hard to maintain the high standard we all hold ourselves to,” an employee wrote.
Freeman and Leaverton are determined to maintain that focus as the company continues its rapid growth. The company has 51 employees and plans to hire another 10 in the next year.
They attribute a large part of Honor’s success to the fact that it is Colorado’s only physician-owned hospice.
In most hospices, physicians who have been the patient’s primary care doctor defer to the hospice medical team.
“The patient loses the physician they’ve been with forever,” Freeman says. “We wanted to change that. With Honor, the whole idea was to allow these physicians to remain involved in their patient’s care as they go through the end of life. We want the physician to stay involved but to add in the continuation of hospice care. You have to build trust.”
