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Hospice extends care options

The state allows the Hospice of Citrus County to offer end-of-life care at its new facility in Lecanto.

By RAGHURAM VADAREVU
Published April 21, 2005

Hospice of Citrus County recently received state permission to use the $2.5-million, 12,000-square-foot facility it is building in Lecanto to provide end-of-life care to 16 patients, hospice officials said Wednesday.

The state Agency for Health Care Administration recently approved the new facility's certificate of need after establishing that the county needed more hospice beds, said Bonnie Saylor, the hospice's director of development.

In recent years, Hospice of Citrus had planned to build a 16-bed residential facility called Hospice House on its property in Lecanto. Officials had wanted to use the building as a residential facility, providing among other services, respite care.

Now, with the certificate of need, Hospice House also can provide end-of-life care to those patients who typically stay in such facilities for 10 days or fewer, Saylor said.

The certificate of need "gives us a lot of capability for different levels of care in the same place," Saylor said.

The 16 beds at Hospice House will increase the number of hospice beds in Citrus.

Earlier this year, Hospice of Citrus opened a six-bed unit at Citrus Memorial Hospital to provide similar end-of-life care. Officials said the hospice unit is for patients who find themselves at the hospital and are suddenly told they are nearing the end of life.

Hospice of Citrus rents the space at the hospital, but hospice staff members, from physicians, nurses, social workers, clergy and specialized therapists, run the unit.

They provide what's called palliative care, medical care that lessens or controls a patient's pain and symptoms and allows them to die with dignity.

Citrus spokesman LeRoy L. Rooks Jr. said the Hospice House is expected to begin receiving patients late this year.

[Last modified April 21, 2005, 01:05:18]