PassagePassage Operations — Established 2018
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The Problem
"We were turning away families after 10 p.m. — not by choice, but by geography."
The Situation
Harmon & Whitfield Funeral Services, a third-generation independent in Colleton County, SC, held a 23-mile removal radius. After-hours calls beyond that boundary were routed to a competitor 47 miles away — a competitor that retained the family.
The Intervention
Passage assumed the after-hours removal function across a 40-mile extended radius, operating under Harmon & Whitfield's license and documentation protocols. All family contact, paperwork, and chain-of-custody remained attributed to the firm.
+40 mi
Extended Radius
0
After-Hours Referrals Lost
14
Months Partnership Active
100%
Chain-of-Custody Maintained
James Harmon III
Director, Harmon & Whitfield — Walterboro, SC
Coverage Expansion
23 → 63 mile radius
Response SLA
≤ 90 min
Colleton County, SC
Wait Time Compression
Discharge call
Director contact
Travel
Arrival
Passage alert
En route
Arrival
Time Reduction
75.6%
faster family arrival at bedside
Palmetto Hospice Network
The Problem
"Families were waiting 90 minutes after the call. That's not a logistics gap — it's a grief gap."
The Situation
Palmetto Hospice Network coordinated discharges across six facilities in Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton counties. Their routing protocol relied on a single on-call director covering a 70-mile corridor — response times averaged 87 minutes, with peaks of 110.
The Intervention
Passage embedded a distributed response protocol across the network: zone-based dispatch routing, pre-positioned transport resources at three facilities, and a direct discharge-coordinator hotline with a 4-minute callback SLA.
The Outcome
Average family wait time dropped from 87 minutes to 22 minutes within the first 60 days. Discharge coordinator satisfaction scores rose from 6.1 to 9.4 out of 10.
Dr. Renata Okafor
Director of Discharge Services — Palmetto Hospice Network
The Problem
"A directive is only as reliable as the name written into it. We needed a name we could trust."
The Situation
Caldwell, Marsh & Nguyen, an elder-law firm in Bluffton, SC, drafted approximately 340 advance directives annually. Their pre-need documentation referenced whichever local funeral home the client nominated — an inconsistent variable that created liability exposure when nominated homes lacked capacity or coverage.
The Intervention
Passage was embedded as the designated transfer agent in the firm's standard PA-7 annex — a single, reliable infrastructure reference that activates regardless of which funeral home the client ultimately selects. The firm's liability exposure shifted from variable to fixed.
The Outcome
340 directives updated in a single document revision cycle. Zero coverage failures in 18 months of active use. The firm now recommends the integration to peer practices in the Beaufort County bar association.
Sandra Nguyen, Esq.
Managing Partner — Caldwell, Marsh & Nguyen, Bluffton, SC
Advance Directive Annex
Form PA-7 — Transfer Agent Designation
Rev. 2025-09
Designated Transfer Agent
Passage Operations LLC
Service Territory
Beaufort, Jasper, Hampton, Colleton
Response SLA
≤ 90 minutes, 24/7/365
License Reference
SC-FD-2019-0447
Pre-Need Integration
Embedded — Form PA-7 Annex
Active — 18 months
340 directives
Coverage Failures
0
Pre-Need Documentation
Partnership Inquiry
Request a
Territory Review.
We assess coverage fit against your service area before any commitment. If the geography aligns, we'll schedule a 30-minute operational briefing within 48 hours.
Submit territory zip codes
We map your service area against our coverage network
Coverage fit assessment
48-hour turnaround on territory viability report
Operational briefing
30 minutes. Protocol, SLAs, documentation standards
Partnership activation
Typically within 5 business days of agreement
Need to present internally first?
Download the Coverage Map
PDF — 14-county territory overview with response zones