Agrace Expands Medical Team

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

As reported by Hospice News, Holly Vossel

Wisconsin-based Agrace Hospice & Supportive Care has hired a new hospice and palliative care physician, Dr. Raj Hiranandani, expanding its medical services team amid growth.

Hiranandani joins Agrace’s interdisciplinary team to help coordinate end-of-life care for hospice patients and their families across its service region in southern Wisconsin. Prior to joining Agrace, he was an internal medicine physician and hospice medical director at the Marshfield Clinic Health System.

Hiranandani earned his medical degree from St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies. He completed his fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. He also completed a second fellowship in contemplative medicine with the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care.

“Dr. Hiranandani has a wealth of knowledge and experience helping patients at the end of life,” Patricia Neuman, vice president of medical services at Agrace, said in an announcement. “His expertise and unique training in contemplative medicine will be valued as a member of the Agrace medical services team.”

Agrace employs roughly 9000 staff who provide hospice, palliative, personal care and adult day and memory care services to nearly 1,500 patients daily in 19 counties statewide.

The nonprofit’s census has grown by 20% during the last half of 2022 alone, according to Agrace CEO Lynne Sexten. The hospice has been focused on recruitment and retention amid growing demand for care.

Agrace recently integrated a three-pronged workforce initiative that included raising employee compensation, bonuses and expanded health care benefits. These investments are aimed at long-term retention and sustainability of services for patients, Sexten said.

“We have this double whammy of a tight labor market, but we’re also growing unbelievably. We needed to recruit people in numbers we were never even thinking we were going to need in order to accommodate that growth,” Sexten previously told Hospice News. “We want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to reward and treat them well with a good work life and better financial balance.”