Home Health & Hospice Week

VITAS operates 28 inpatient units.

New hospice facilities continue to appear as need for the service persists, despite COVID driving more care into the home.

Many hospices are somewhere in the process of adding an inpatient facility, whether it’s still in the planning stages or opening its doors.

For example: In Boone, North Carolina, AMOREM hospice and palliative care plans to add a seven-bed unit in Boone, reports the Blowing Rocket newspaper. Nonprofit AMOREM is the result of a 2021 merger of Burke Hospice and Palliative Care with Caldwell Hospice and Palliative Care and serves 12 counties in the state.

AMOREM operates three other inpatient facilities in Lenoir (6 beds), Hudson (12 beds), and Valdese (14 beds), the newspaper says. They help to drive down hospitalization rates at end of life in their communities, the hospice maintains.

Other recent facility openings include:

In Florida: VITAS Healthcare has opened a third inpatient unit with Broward Health, the Miami-based company says in a release. VITAS plans to serve more than 400 patients annually with the eight-room unit in the Broward Health Medical Center in Ft. Lauderdale. VITAS operates five other IPUs in the county. VITAS operates in 14 states overall and runs 28 inpatient hospice units, it says.

In Oregon: Bend-based Partners In Care is opening a new, larger inpatient unit that will have 12 suites, reports The Bulletin newspaper. Partners In Care will use its old six-bed building for office space.

In Illinois: The Lincolnland Hospice of Sarah Bush Lincoln Health System in Mattoon has received regulatory approval to build an inpatient facility in east central Illinois, it says. The eight-bed facility is expected to open in early 2023, reports the Journal Gazette & Times-Courier newspaper.

In New York: Chautauqua Hospice and Palliative Care has opened a new inpatient facility, the Star Hospice House, in Lakewood, reports The Post-Journal newspaper.

In Ohio: After being closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Hospice of Medina County, an affiliate of Hospice of the Western Reserve, has resumed inpatient care at its eight-bed facility in Medina, reports news outlet cleveland. com.

In Texas: Abundant Hospice opened a 12-unit facility in San Antonio late last year, the provider says in a release. The hospice uses a “Xenex LightStrike UV disinfection robot to destroy germs” including COVID-19, it says.