Our Hospice Care Team in Detroit,
MI | St. Marie's Hospice
Meet the interdisciplinary care team behind every St. Marie’s Hospice patient — physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, and therapists working as one.
OUR INTERDISCIPLINARY CARE TEAM
Who Shows Up for Your Family at St. Marie's Hospice
The thing that separates hospice from nearly every other kind of healthcare is the team.
In most medical settings, you see a doctor. Maybe a nurse. Other specialists are people you get referred to — separate visits, separate conversations. In hospice, that structure flips. A coordinated group of professionals shows up for you under a single plan of care, meeting regularly to talk about one thing: the patient in front of them.
This isn’t something hospices choose to do. Federal Medicare regulations require it. What varies between providers is how well the team actually works — and who’s on it beyond the required minimum.Here’s who you’ll meet on the St. Marie’s Hospice team, and what each person does.
Why Hospice Care Requires
a Team
The federal Conditions of Participation for Hospice (42 CFR 418.56) require every Medicare-certified hospice to maintain an Interdisciplinary Group — commonly called the IDG. The core members must include a physician, a registered nurse, a medical social worker, and a spiritual care counselor. That’s the minimum standard.
The reason is straightforward. End-of-life care isn’t a medical problem in isolation. It’s medical, emotional, practical, and spiritual — all at once. One discipline can’t do all of it well. A coordinated team can.
LPNs provide ongoing clinical care between RN visits — administering medications, changing dressings, monitoring vital signs, and reporting changes back to the RN and physician. They're a steady clinical presence. Families we work with often know their LPN best after the first few weeks.
The RN is usually your primary point of contact. They coordinate the full care plan, make routine visits to assess pain and symptoms, adjust medications under physician orders, and are the first person you call when something changes. When we talk about "continuous communication" in hospice, the RN is the person who makes that real day to day.
The hospice physician oversees your loved one's medical plan of care. That includes certifying eligibility for hospice, prescribing and adjusting medications for symptom control, coordinating with primary care physicians and specialists, and signing off on the care plan the rest of the team follows. You may not see the physician at every visit — they often work through the nursing team — but every medical decision traces back to them.
Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
The CNA is often the team member who spends the most time at the bedside. They help with bathing, grooming, personal hygiene, positioning, and the physical comfort measures that make a difficult day easier. Experienced CNAs notice the small things a family might miss — changes in skin, appetite, alertness — and communicate those to the nursing team quickly.
Medical Social Worker
Hospice isn’t only medical. It’s also paperwork, insurance, family dynamics, and emotional weight no one prepares you for. The medical social worker helps with all of it — connecting families to community resources, navigating benefits, supporting conversations that are hard to have, and following families into bereavement after a patient passes. This role is federally required for a reason.
Music Therapist
Our music therapists are board-certified clinicians, not entertainers. They use personalized music interventions — live performance, guided listening, songwriting, reminiscence — to reduce anxiety, ease pain, and support emotional processing for patients and families. Clinical research supports music therapy as an evidence-based intervention
in end-of-life care
Massage Therapist
Gentle, therapeutic massage from a licensed practitioner helps relieve muscle tension, improve circulation, and reduce the physical discomfort that pain medications alone don't always address. For patients who've lost mobility or spent long periods in bed, the difference it makes is often immediate.
How the Team Actually Works Together
Every patient's team meets regularly — a practice known as the IDG meeting — to review progress, discuss changes, and update the care plan together. Nothing happens in silos. When the CNA notices a new wound, the nurse knows within the day. When the social worker hears that family tensions are rising, the chaplain can be brought in. When pain patterns shift, the physician adjusts medications and the nursing team implements the change. This coordination is what makes hospice work. Any provider can assemble the required roles on paper. What matters is whether those roles actually communicate — and whether the person showing up at your door is part of a team that knows your loved one by name. That's the standard we operate under every day.
Meet the Team That Will Care for Your Family
If you’re evaluating hospice for a loved one, we welcome the chance to introduce you to the people who would be on your care team. Call (800) 489-7977 to schedule a free consultation, or reach us through our contact page.