A Conversation With Jaime Wasden-Ryum, Founder Of Mountain View Hospice
What if some of the best hospice marketing does not feel like marketing at all?
In this episode of Voices of Hospice Leadership, Brian Frantz sits down with Jaime Wasden-Ryum, founder of Mountain View Hospice in Arizona, to talk about what happens when a hospice focuses first on education, community support, exceptional care, and being a trusted resource.
Jaime brings a unique perspective to hospice leadership. Before entering hospice, she worked in emergency, trauma, and flight nursing. That experience helped shape how she thinks about serious illness, end-of-life care, family education, and the conversations healthcare professionals sometimes avoid.
Today, that philosophy shows up throughout Mountain View Hospice, from helping families navigate the transition home after a hospitalization to supporting dementia caregivers, developing hospice clinicians, earning Google reviews, and reaching families through social media.
Watch or listen to the full episode below.
What Families Need To Know About “The New Norm”
One of the most important concepts Jaime discusses in the episode is what she calls “The New Norm.”
When an older adult spends time in the hospital, rehabilitation, or a skilled nursing facility, families are often excited when they hear their loved one is being discharged.
But discharge does not necessarily mean that person is returning to the same physical or cognitive baseline they had before.
Someone may have been away from home for several weeks. During that time, their strength, balance, mobility, cognition, sleep patterns, or care needs may have changed.
Then they return to an environment that suddenly presents challenges they did not have to navigate in the hospital.
- A different floor surface can matter.
- A throw rug can matter.
- The height of a chair can matter.
- The distance to the bathroom can matter.
- The lack of a hospital bedrail can matter.
Even a recliner someone used independently before hospitalization may become difficult or unsafe after muscle loss and a prolonged period away from home.
As Jaime explains, the family has to learn what the person’s new normal actually looks like rather than assuming everything will immediately return to the way it was before.
Why The First 48 Hours At Home Matter
The first 24 to 48 hours after someone returns home can reveal needs the family never saw while visiting a hospital or rehabilitation facility.
One of the biggest blind spots is nighttime.
A family member may have visited every afternoon and believed Mom or Dad was doing well. What they may not have seen was agitation after dark, sundowning, frequent waking, coughing, medication use, bathroom assistance, or other nighttime behaviors.
At home, there is no call button.
There may not be someone immediately available to help a person get out of bed, walk to the bathroom, or regain their balance.
And when the family caregiver is also exhausted, the risk can grow quickly.
Jaime encourages families to consider additional support during those first nights at home so they can better understand what the person actually needs and reduce the risk of another hospital admission.
Helping Families Before Hospice Is The Answer
What happens when someone needs help, but hospice is not appropriate yet?
Mountain View Hospice created a program called Resource to help answer that question.
Instead of walking away when a family does not yet qualify for hospice, Jaime and her team try to understand what that person actually needs.
Depending on the situation, that may involve connecting the family with:
- Home health
- Non-medical in-home caregivers
- Care management
- Durable medical equipment
- VA resources
- Mobile healthcare providers
- Mobile laboratory services
- Mobile X-rays
- Mobile podiatry
- Community programs
- Lending closets
- Transportation or other local resources
The goal is not to turn every conversation into a hospice admission.
It is to help the person remain as safe and independent as possible and connect the family with people who can solve the problems they are facing.
Jaime describes the Resource team as helping families connect the puzzle pieces when healthcare has become overwhelming.
Why Community Stewardship Comes Before The Referral
From a traditional business perspective, helping someone who may not need hospice for six months, a year, or perhaps ever can be difficult to justify.
Jaime sees it differently.
If someone reaches out to Mountain View Hospice, they reached out for a reason.
Her philosophy is to find a way to help, even when Mountain View is not the answer.
During the episode, Jaime calls it “the giver’s game” and talks about being a good steward of the community.
That does not mean there is no business benefit.
When you consistently help people, educate families, solve problems, and become known as a reliable community resource, people remember your organization.
But the referral is not the starting point.
Serving the community is.
Creating Dementia-Friendly Communities
Jaime’s commitment to community education also extends into her work with Dementia Friendly Arizona.
A dementia-friendly community helps local residents and organizations better understand what dementia can look like and how to respond appropriately when someone living with dementia is navigating everyday life.
That education can include restaurants, libraries, grocery stores, gas stations, and other local businesses.
Why does that matter?
People living with dementia still want to participate in their communities.
- They want to go out to eat.
- They want to visit the library.
- They want to shop.
- They want to remain connected.
When businesses and community members misunderstand behaviors associated with dementia, it can create embarrassment, frustration, and greater isolation for both the individual and their caregiver.
Education can help make those environments more understanding and accessible.
How Memory Cafés Support People Living With Dementia And Their Caregivers
One of Jaime’s biggest passions is the Dementia Friendly Memory Café.
The concept brings together people living with dementia and the family members or caregivers supporting them.
The gathering begins with everyone together for conversation, coffee, and community.
Then the group separates.
People living with dementia participate in activities specifically designed for engagement and enrichment. These can include sensory activities, cognitive exercises, music, familiar television themes, and other experiences designed to create connection.
Meanwhile, caregivers participate in their own support group.
Those conversations can range from practical challenges to deeply emotional experiences.
Caregivers share what has worked in their homes, compare solutions, laugh about difficult situations, and talk honestly with people who understand what they are living through.
Jaime shares one particularly powerful moment in which a caregiver admitted feeling so overwhelmed that there were times they wished their loved one would die.
Instead of judgment, the response from others in the room was essentially, “Me too.”
That moment helped the caregiver realize that loving someone deeply and feeling exhausted, frustrated, angry, or overwhelmed can exist at the same time.
That is the type of connection Memory Cafés are designed to create.
Why Families Often Wait Too Long To Consider Hospice
Another misconception Jaime wants to change is what a hospice patient is supposed to look like.
Families sometimes assume hospice is only appropriate when someone is completely bedridden, no longer eating, barely communicating, or clearly in their final days.
That is not necessarily the case.
As Jaime explains during the episode, someone can still be walking, talking, interacting with family, and participating in everyday life while receiving hospice care.
Waiting until the very end can mean a family misses valuable time when hospice could have provided additional education, support, symptom management, equipment, and guidance.
Hospice conversations do not have to wait until a crisis.
What Hospice Really Provides For Families
Jaime also emphasizes an important distinction that families need to understand:
Hospice is supplemental care.
Hospice does not automatically mean a caregiver will be in the home 24 hours a day.
The hospice team provides care based on the patient’s individualized plan of care and Medicare guidelines.
That can include nursing, hospice aides, social work, spiritual care, medications related to the terminal diagnosis, equipment, education, symptom management, and support for the patient and family.
But the family still needs to understand who is providing day-to-day care and what additional resources may be necessary.
Setting those expectations early helps families understand what hospice will provide and where additional support may be needed.
Why Ongoing Education Matters For Hospice Teams
Jaime’s education-first philosophy does not stop with families.
It also applies to her staff.
Hospice clinicians care for patients with complex diagnoses, changing symptoms, family dynamics, caregiver concerns, psychosocial needs, and spiritual needs.
That requires more than completing a checklist.
Jaime believes continuing education helps clinicians understand the why behind the care they provide.
Better education can give nurses greater confidence when they walk into a difficult situation.
It can help them recognize changes sooner.
It can help them communicate more effectively with families.
And it can help create stronger clinicians who are better prepared for leadership roles within hospice.
For Mountain View Hospice, developing people is part of developing the organization.
Why Jaime Believes Hospice Should Be Educated, Not Sold
The conversation eventually turns to marketing, and this is where Jaime makes one of the strongest statements of the episode:
“Hospice isn’t for sale.”
Her belief is that hospice should be educated rather than sold.
Mountain View Hospice does not build its growth strategy around traditional hospice marketers constantly asking referral sources for patients.
Instead, the organization focuses heavily on:
- Community education
- Relationships
- Dementia initiatives
- Resource navigation
- Staff quality
- Family experience
- Online reputation
- Educational social media
- Being visible and useful within the community
When families and healthcare professionals consistently see your organization helping people, your hospice can become a trusted resource long before somebody needs to make a hospice decision.
That trust can eventually become growth.
Why Google Reviews Matter More Than Ever For Hospice Providers
One of the most important marketing takeaways from the conversation is Jaime’s experience with Google reviews.
She says Google reviews have become Mountain View Hospice’s number one referral source.
Families may receive the name of a hospice from a hospital, physician, facility, friend, or family member.
But that does not mean the decision ends there.
People still pull out their phones.
They search Google.
They read reviews.
They compare organizations.
They look for reassurance that they are making the right decision during an incredibly emotional time.
Mountain View pays attention to positive moments during the patient and family experience and looks for appropriate opportunities to ask for feedback.
That approach helps the organization build an online reputation based on the experiences families are already having.
For hospice providers, the lesson is simple.
Your reputation is no longer only word of mouth.
It is searchable.
How Social Media Is Changing The Way Families Find Hospice
Google is not the only place families are researching care.
Jaime has even had families discover Mountain View Hospice through TikTok.
That matters because hospice leaders sometimes assume social media is only useful if they are reaching the person who will ultimately make the hospice decision.
But digital behavior does not work that way.
A younger family member may see educational hospice content.
They may send it to a parent.
A daughter may share something with an aunt.
A grandchild may start a conversation with the person who is actually coordinating care.
Educational content can travel across generations.
That is why Jaime’s experience reinforces an important principle for hospice marketing:
You do not always know which person will discover your organization first.
You simply need to make sure useful, trustworthy information is there when they do.
What Hospice Leaders Can Learn From Mountain View Hospice
There is a common thread connecting almost everything Jaime shares in this conversation.
Help first.
Educate families before they are in crisis.
Support people who may not be ready for hospice.
Teach your community about dementia.
Create places where caregivers feel less alone.
Develop better clinicians.
Provide an experience families want to talk about.
Build a reputation people can find when they search.
Use social media to educate rather than constantly promote.
And become a trusted resource before asking anyone for a referral.
That is not simply a compassionate approach to hospice.
It can also become a sustainable growth strategy.
When people know who you are, understand what you do, trust your organization, and can find evidence of that trust online, choosing your hospice becomes easier.
About Jaime Wasden-Ryum
Jaime Wasden-Ryum is the founder of Mountain View Hospice in Arizona.
Her healthcare background includes emergency, trauma, and flight nursing. Her work today focuses on hospice leadership, family education, community resources, dementia-friendly initiatives, caregiver support, and developing hospice professionals.
Through Mountain View Hospice and her community involvement, Jaime advocates for earlier education, better conversations around serious illness and death, and a community-first approach to supporting families.
Ready To Strengthen Your Hospice’s Visibility And Grow Your Census?
Providing exceptional care is essential, but families also need to be able to find you, understand what makes your hospice different, and trust what they see online.
Hospice Care Marketing partners exclusively with hospice providers to improve Google Maps visibility, strengthen online reputation, create educational content, reach families through digital marketing, and turn visibility into more calls, referrals, and admissions. Visit https://go.hospicecaremarketing.com/ or call (877) 959-5849 to learn how we can help you grow your census.
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