St.
Vincent’s HealthCare Selects Community Hospice To
Build 10-Bed Inpatient Unit
Construction will begin soon on a new, 10-bed hospice inpatient unit at
St. Vincent’s Medical Center Riverside. Staffed and operated by Community
Hospice of Northeast Florida and located on the fourth floor of St. Vincent’s
Riverside, the unit is scheduled to open in early 2013.
“Community Hospice is honored to be selected
by St. Vincent’s to partner with them in developing these new services and to collaborate
with their physicians and staff to help in their mission to bring comfort to
patients and their families who are dealing with advanced illness,” said Susan Ponder-Stansel,
President and CEO of Community Hospice. “Both our organizations share a long history of providing compassionate
care to our community.”
The nearly
6,500 sq. ft. of space will include 10 private patient rooms, as well as
comforting, home-like amenities, a family lounge and a kitchen for use by
family and visitors. The goal is to meet patients’ end-of-life care needs in an
acute care setting.
“We are
pleased to work with Community Hospice as our hospice provider, whose
commitment to delivering excellent care complements our own values,” said St.
Vincent’s HealthCare President and CEO Moody Chisholm. “Expanding our ministry
by adding the option of hospice care reflects our Mission to serve the sick and
vulnerable, and the value we place in the inherent dignity of each person by
giving our patients more control over their end-of-life care plan.”
Community
Hospice will recruit and train an interdisciplinary team of about 13 staff to
provide round-the-clock patient care at the hospice inpatient unit, including
medical staff, nurses, certified nursing assistants, psychosocial specialists
and chaplains.
Construction
of this unit at St. Vincent’s Riverside is expected to begin in the summer of
2012. It will cost more than $1.9 million and is being funded by Community
Hospice.
Community
Hospice currently provides care to more than 1,200 patients each day in Baker,
Clay, Duval, Nassau and St. Johns counties, serving patients and their families
at home, in long term care and assisted living facilities, and at local
hospitals like St. Vincent’s. In addition, Community Hospice operates five
other Centers for Caring totaling approximately 100 additional inpatient beds.
Read our featured article from the Resident Community News
Florida Doctor Magazine April 2012
