Methodist Alliance Hospice, a division of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, applied Tuesday, September 4, for a certificate of need (CON) to build a hospice residence. The residence will be a $9 million dollar, 30-bed free-standing facility. The Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare board approved $2 million towards the project’s capital campaign. The facility will be built on close to six acres on Quince Road between Messick and Kirby.

“We have facilities for every phase of life, except for the dying phase, so there is an enormous need for a hospice residence,” said Mitch Graves, president, Affiliated Services, a division of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare. “By building a hospice residence we can provide a place where patients can embrace life to the fullest and have the dignity they deserve during their final stage of life.”

Since 1979, Methodist Hospice has provided compassionate care and support to individuals and their families who are facing life’s final journey. Darrell Eldred’s family is one of the families who benefited from hospice care when his brother Mickey became terminally ill.

“We had absolutely no idea what to do, where to go, what resources to ask for,” said Eldred. “All through the process, the Methodist Hospice staff was there. They helped us with virtually every step of it, even down to the medications. Without them, I am not sure how we would have been able to handle the situation.”

As one of the first hospices in the country to receive Medicare certification, Methodist Hospice works to help ease the end-of-life transition for over 225 families in the Mid-South every day. Methodist Hospice leaders believe a hospice residence is the next step in providing outstanding care for patients, both adults and children, who are facing their final days and their families.

“Some patients and families need more care than what hospice can provide,” explained Graves. “For instance, there are times when a patient’s pain can not be managed well in the home. A hospice residence would have the medical technology in place to provide relief from complex pain issues.”

“The hospital is designed for the living. It’s there to assist in living and healing and not the dying process and had Methodist Hospice had a residence, it would have been a godsend. It would have been ideal for what Mickey needed the last two weeks of his life,” said Eldred.

The Methodist Hospice Residence will provide acute care for those who require symptom management and short-term residential beds for those who cannot be cared for in their homes. The residence will also contain office space to accommodate interdisciplinary teams of physicians, nurses, home health aides, chaplains, social workers, volunteers and support staff. The hospice residence will serve as a community asset, offering educational rooms, a library and a bereavement center open to all adults and children throughout the region.

“When it can’t be about the curing, it must still be about the caring,” said Graves. “The Methodist Hospice Residence will be a special place for embracing the miracle of life.”

Methodist Hospice will use a combination of funds from Methodist Healthcare and private donations to build the residence. If you would like to make a donation to the Methodist Hospice Residence, call 516-0500 or go to methodisthealth.org and under healthcare services go to Hospice and click on fundraising.