Hospice ‘Sharing the Journey’ with patients

By Tammy Buseman

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People receive hospice care in various settings: homes, nursing facilities, or the hospital. This year, Hospice of Mercy celebrates the fifth anniversary of its hospice house. The Dennis and Donna Oldorf Hospice House of Mercy offers patient-centered care.

Hospice of Mercy has grown in unimaginable ways as we have expanded and improved our community outreach. The more people we serve, the more we discover what a valuable resource our hospice house has become. We treasure the opportunity to support individuals and their loved ones in their end-of-life journey.

The Hospice House of Mercy provides 24-hour nursing care for each patient, exceeding that which is available in a home setting. We serve people of all ages and walks of life - including the homeless. Some of the highest compliments we have received came from patients who told us that they have been treated with dignity and respect for the first time in their lives.

Since opening in May 2007, we have served approximately 1,100 patients. As the only hospice house in the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City corridor, our outreach is extensive. The next closest hospice house is in Waterloo.

Our goal is to provide a variety of services so patients can spend their final days in a caring, comfortable environment, surrounded by family members and caregivers who are both competent and compassionate. Our 22,000-square foot facility has 12 patient rooms with hospital-standard medical resources and accommodations for families. Our average daily census is nine patients.

Each patient room has access to a private outdoor patio. An open kitchen, dining and living room areas, children's play areas, walking paths, garden, chapel/meditation room for all faiths and a library enrich the homelike atmosphere.

There also is respite-level care for caregivers who have shouldered the responsibilities of caring for their loved one. We offer them a break, while encouraging them to remain with their loved one for comfort.

Many patients arrive expecting an institutional setting and are relieved to find it absent.

We encourage family and loved ones to stay here, using our comfort room that provides a shower, washer/dryer and couch. There are no visiting hours; visitors can come and go as needed.

This spring, we added another special feature in two rooms: a standard double bed. This allows for the patient's spouse or loved one to rest with them. We did this after spouses explained how difficult and uncomfortable it was to share a hospital bed.

It was hospice volunteers who gathered more than 3,500 signatures to raise awareness of the need for a hospice house. Donna Oldorf's generous lead gift of $1.1 million in memory of her husband, Dennis, a Hospice of Mercy patient, enabled us to build this hospice house. More than 2,000 communitywide donors also contributed and the Hall-Perrine Foundation provided $1.7 million.

Volunteers remain an integral part of our care. They include greeters at the main entrance, regular visitors who bring therapy dogs to cheer those animal-lovers among our patients, musicians who play and sing to patients, others who bring snacks or meals for patients' families, and our eleventh-hour volunteers who stay with patients as death nears. In 2011, we had 5,098 volunteer hours logged.

The effort that built this special hospice house was the “Sharing the Journey” campaign. We're still sharing the journey, and are honored to do so with every patient and family member we serve. We welcome the community to join us at 315 18th Ave., Hiawatha, for our open house from 4 to 6 p.m. on Wednesday. For more information, call (319) 398-6496 or visit www.mercycare.org.

Tammy Buseman is director of Hospice of Mercy. Comments: tbuseman@mercycare.org.