State regulations encourage new hospice houses

CHARLESTON, S.C. - For many South Carolinians facing a terminal illness, a hospital or the state's only hospice house in Anderson are the only choices to spend their final days. But that's about to change.

Since the state created regulations for freestanding hospice houses in 2002, communities around the state are looking to build. State regulators have approved a project in Florence. Others could be on the way in Rock Hill, Georgetown, Hilton Head and Greenwood, said Kit Cosgrove, Hospice of Charleston's executive director.

Patients typically move into an inpatient hospice facility in their final weeks of life and when their care has become too intense to be addressed at home. Hospice facilities give families a break from providing care, so they can focus on spending time with their loved one. In some cases, patients stay at a hospice for a short time until their caregiver can be trained in how to provide for them. In other instances, a patient may move into a hospice if they have no caregiver at all.

Hospice of Charleston plans to begin work on a 20-bed, $3.8 million facility on Wando Park Boulevard in Mount Pleasant that should be finished by 2005. It will employ 28 to 30 people.

The facility has brought together all four of the area's hospital systems in a rare show of unity. All four are chairing an effort to raise $3 million for the hospice house.

One, East Cooper Regional Medical Center, has committed $150,000. Trident Health System, Roper St. Francis Healthcare and the Medical University of South Carolina are also looking into ways to commit funds and in-kind donations. So far, the campaign has raised about $1.5 million.

"We know that when it comes to the end of life, we can't provide the environment to best meet the needs of patients and families," said Andrea Wozniak, East Cooper's CEO. "A hospital is no place to be when you die."

The cost of hospice care is as little as one-fourth the cost of care at a hospital. Officials estimate that the planned 20-bed facility can save the local health system $4 million a year.

Hospice services provide care to people in their final months of life, either in home-based care or at an inpatient facility. The focus at a hospice home is on providing comfort to the terminally ill when either the patient, or the doctor, has decided nothing else can be done.

People's reliance on inpatient hospice has grown in recent years, but so far, hospice in South Carolina has been limited to home care services.

Information from: The Post And Courier