Most people probably don’t realize that the Hackley VNS and Hospice staff consists of more than 150 registered nurses, social workers, occupational and physical therapists, social workers, and home health aides, to name a few of the professional and paraprofessional disciplines available to serve our patients, in their homes.
What fewer realize is that there is also a hard-working doctor on the scene, too. Respected local doctor Marjorie Mooney, M.D. an internal medicine physician in the Hackley Primary Care network with offices in Muskegon and Spring Lake, serves as Medical Director for the Hospice Services of Hackley VNS. “Dr. Mooney attends the bi-weekly Hospice interdisciplinary team meetings,” explains Amy Purple, Director of Hospice Services, “where the care of our Hospice patients is planned and discussed. She works with each patient’s primary care physician and the Hospice team, serving as a valuable resource for pain control and symptom relief issues. When needed she is available to visit patients in their homes for improved oversight of medical care.” She regularly visits patients in the Bob & Merle Scolnik Hospice House, too. “This is an area that we are developing to meet the growing complexity of care that we are seeing in our patients. We are working to manage some very difficult symptoms that, once resolved, greatly improve a person’s quality of life. Dr. Mooney provides guidance and direction that is invaluable to the Hospice staff,” Purple adds.
Dr. Mooney operates a busy practice in addition to her Hospice work, and she holds impressive credentials. She graduated from the Ohio State University School of Medicine in 1986 and went on to a residency in Internal Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, serving as Chief Medical Resident from 1989-90. She then divided her time between the private practice of internal medicine and being first a Clinical Instructor of Medicine, then Assistant Program Director of the Internal Medicine Residency Program at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit. In 1995 she joined Hackley Hospital’s Primary Care Network, employed full time in the practice of internal medicine. Married and the mother of three, she is also a dedicated community leader.