Construction begins on hospice

By FULLER ROYAL

With a crowd of 150 or so supporters looking on, more than a dozen shovel-wielding organizers broke ground on Hospice House, which is scheduled to open in October, 2007.

Construction is to start this fall on the $2.5 million project, the culmination of three years of work and fundraising. So far, $1.2 million has been raised for the six-bed facility where patients can live out their final days and hours in a comfortable home-like setting, but with high levels of medical care and pain management.

Hospice House will be owned and operated by the Lower Cape Fear Hospice (LCFH) and LifeCareCenter and will serve Bladen, Columbus and Brunswick counties.

LCFH, the largest hospice care provider in Southeastern North Carolina, operates a hospice facility in Wilmington.

Columbus and Bladen patients needing acute hospice care had to be taken to Wilmington with families and friends driving back and forth.

That facility will continue to serve New Hanover and Pender counties and the portions of Brunswick County closer to Wilmington.
The fundraising efforts for the local facility are known as Building a Dream.

The facility is to be built on land behind Liberty Commons on Warrior Trail. The land, once owned by the late J.C. Lennon, was donated by heirs Mr. and Mrs. John Lennon.

The Lennons were present and were recognized for their contribution.

Michele Gore, chairman of Build a Dream’s community gifts and events, welcomed the audience Tuesday morning.

LCFH Executive Director Laurie Myles said she was delighted with the turnout, adding that they had only expected a crowd half as large.
Whiteville Mayor Dial Gray said Hospice House would be a great asset to Whiteville and Columbus County. No longer will family members have to drive to Wilmington for acute hospice care.

He said that Columbus Regional Healthcare would benefit from the facility, as would the nursing program at Southeastern Community College.

He said the center would give county volunteers another outlet for their time.

“This will give our citizens an opportunity to do something for their fellow man,” Gray said. “People here will see the kind of care patients get in their last days and they will appreciate it.”

CRH Public Relations and Marketing Director Terrie Priest said the hospice center would allow residents to have more time with their loved ones and less time traveling down the road.

She said that CRH had helped with Hospice House’s Duke Endowment application.
Bruce Gibson, LCFH’s president, said that Bladen and Columbus County’s residents had been supportive.

“We are committed to this community and the adjacent two counties,” he said. “This facility will provide a new and higher level of care and support. Lower Cape Fear Hospice is a strong service organization.”

Gibson said that an analysis conducted two years ago of the five counties being served by LCFH showed that many patients were being underserved.

He said the average daily census of patients in the existing hospice center doubles every 20 months.

The solution is the construction of a second hospice facility.

“This facility will be tangible sign that a new level of healthcare is here,” he said. “It will allow us to go deeper into this community.”

LCFH board member and chairman of the Building a Dream Capital Campaign Debra Walters recognized some of the major contributors to the project. “The bottom line is that everyone is going to die,” said keynote speaker Sen. R.C. Soles. “We can only hope that our last days can be spent in peace with a good quality of healthcare.”

Soles said that LCFH is the largest and most successful deliverer of hospice care in this part of the state.

“We’re very fortunate to have LCFH heading up this campaign and bringing hospice to Columbus County,” Soles said.

After the ceremony, Lennon said he thought the project was worthwhile enough to give the land.

“They need it, they approached us and we were glad to give,” he said.

Hospice House will include six private patient and family suites, open courtyard gardens, a living room, a meditation and reading room, kitchen, dining and laundry rooms.

All are designed to meet the needs of hospice patients and their visiting caregivers, loved ones and families.

The center, which is staffed seven days per week and 24 hours per day, will work with Columbus Regional Healthcare as well as local physicians. In addition to the center’s medical staff, volunteers will be on hand to help with the supplemental care for patients and their families.