By: By Jennifer Willems

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a series of articles about the proposed OSF Richard L. Owens Hospice Home in Peoria and hospice care in general. Future stories will look at how local patients and their families have benefited and the role of volunteers.

The clock is ticking.

While great strides have been made to raise funds for construction of the OSF Richard L. Owens Hospice Home in Peoria, another $2.5 million is needed before ground can be broken. That must happen within the next year or the project could be in jeopardy, according to Donna Medina, vice president of OSF Hospice.

The license for the facility was renewed in April, which means it must be open and receiving patients by April 2013 or risk losing that license, she explained.

“We have to have about 90 days for the State of Illinois to inspect the facility once it’s up, before we can open the doors. Now we’re back to about January 2013,” Medina said. “It takes about a year to build the facility. Now we’re back to January 2012.”

Construction can’t begin when the ground is frozen, however. She told The Catholic Post that the latest ground could be broken and still meet the deadline is October 2011 — and next spring would be even better.

Active fundraising has resulted in $4 million, but $6.5 million is needed before they can start construction. The total cost of the project, which would be located near the OSF Center for Health on Route 91, is $7.5 million.

“That’s what we’re focusing on right now. We have to get the balance of this money,” Medina said. “We really are in a time crunch.”

There is a sense of urgency as she speaks. The need is great, she said.

RIGHT LEVEL OF CARE
“We have hospitals to cure you. We have hospitals designed for newborns, to make sure that even if they have problems they’re given the best chance possible,” she said. “But in the state of Illinois we have done an abysmal job of providing care at the end of life.”

There is one hospice home in Joliet and a small eight-bed facility in Rockford. Compared to other states — Iowa has 18, for example — “we are so far behind,” Medina pointed out.

“Statistics show that 75 to 80 percent of people don’t want to die in a hospital or nursing home and that’s where they end up dying,” she said, calling a hospice home “the right level of care for a patient.”

Ideally hospice keeps patients in their homes and a majority of them are able to do that, Medina told The Post. The hospice home, which can accommodate 16 people at a time and has one pediatric room, addresses patients with acute symptoms.

She used congestive heart failure as a “classic example.”

“If you have congestive heart failure and you’re really at the end, but you have problems, you go to the hospital,” she said. “They go and we rescue them. They go and we rescue them. The last time we fail to rescue them and they die. Nobody has a clue that they’re going to die and it comes as a shock.”

Someone in this situation who is taking the maximum doses of their heart medication and is still having issues should be in hospice, Medina said, noting that they will get the treatment and medication they need as well as the support of people who are trained in assisting those who are dying.
They’re also in a place where their family and friends can surround them.

“My Catholicism is showing here, but it’s a shame that we are so afraid of death,” she said. “I was with this little Italian lady the other day and she said, ‘I’m not afraid to die. I’m going to meet my Lord and Savior. I’ve prayed to him all my life. Why would I be afraid when I’m going to join him?’

“I’m not certain that many people’s faith is secure enough that they’re comfortable with that concept,” Medina said.

TYING UP LOOSE ENDS
In order to prepare for and have a good death, people may need to tie up some “loose ends” — asking for and granting forgiveness, making sure loved ones will be cared for financially and emotionally, and saying goodbye.

“Because of the activity and the busyness, a hospital doesn’t have time to focus on those aspects. That’s not what their focus is,” Medina said. “But it’s what our focus is. What are your loose ends?”

In fact, when there is trouble managing pain it is often because there are unresolved issues, she said.

When OSF Home Care Services receives a referral for hospice, that person or their family are contacted within two hours. “If they’re dying they need us sooner rather than later,” she said.

If possible, that person is admitted to hospice care within 24 hours.

“Hospice is growing across the nation, but at OSF this year we had days when our census was 273 patients. Our education is beginning to work and people are understanding the need,” Medina said. “The sad part of the numbers is that over 30 percent of our patients die within the first seven days. They don’t get that benefit as much as they could.”

To make a contribution to the OSF Richard L. Owens Hospice Home or to discuss naming opportunities for rooms within the facility, call (800) 673-5288 or go to www.osfhomecare.org.