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New hospice home provides 24 more rooms

The biggest facility of Hernando-Pasco Hospice debuts today. It will serve those in the last few days of life.

NEW PORT RICHEY - The finishing touches include a brightly colored afghan at the foot of each bed. They were tailor-made for and donated to the $2.9-million facility.

The wooden nightstands are bare. They wait for pictures, letters and keepsakes to be placed by those who will die here or by the people who love them.

The rooms' extra-wide doors, large to accommodate wheelchairs and stretchers, are not numbered. This is so the place will feel less like a hospital and more like a home.

A ribbon-cutting will be today for the opening of Hernando-Pasco Hospice's new Hospice Care Center, which will add to the services HPH already provides in Hudson, Brooksville and Dade City.

The event, which is open to the public, will begin at 11:30 a.m. State Sen. Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey) will be the keynote speaker, and facility tours will follow until 2 p.m.

The new "Hospice care center" on 6801 Rowan Road will be geared for patients in their last few days of life, often with complicated pain or symptoms. ("Hospice houses" are designed for patients in the last 30 to 60 days of life.)

"I'm very proud of this facility. I mean that from the heart," said Jane Birkhold, the center's community relations coordinator. "My mother died in the hospital. I wish there were a place like this for her."

The 24-bed care center, under construction since May, is HPH's biggest facility so far. It is one of only a few permanent hospice care centers in Florida.

Each of the rooms has a sitting area next to the bed with a foldout sofa for visitors to sleep on. Friends and family members will be able to visit any time of day or night.

The rooms are decorated individually with live plants and varying paint, trim and wallpaper schemes in each one.

"We want it to be as homelike as possible," Birkhold said.

HPH, a non-profit organization, runs on donations and takes patients regardless of their ability to pay.

In addition to about 40 staff members, including nurses, a full-time social service counselor, a chaplain and a cook, the center will put more than 100 volunteers to work.

Birkhold said the facility still needs volunteers. They can help in a variety of ways, she said, such as working in the kitchen, reading or writing letters for patients, or simply sitting bedside to keep them company.

"Our thought is that no person should ever die alone," Birkhold said.