THE hospice way to die got three strong endorsements Sept. 4: New hospice care
home opened in Ewa1 -- "Serene and as pain-free as possible," was the terminology used by U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye.
2 -- "The hospice program really gave our family moral support," said Doug Beter, whose 67-year-old mother died last year.
3 -- The doors were opened to a new $5 million hospice care home at the grassy, green 24-acre St. Francis Healthcare Services Campus near Ewa Beach. The home has rooms with views, a chapel, sitting rooms and a dining room patients can share with families.
The sturdiness of the 19-year-old hospice movement in Hawaii was thus attested. Today it assists about one-fifth of all deaths in the state. Before too many years it may be up to half or more for the simple reason that it is right. Its main growth comes by word of mouth from families like Doug Beter's.
Since he is a pigeon raiser Beter added his own special touch of beauty to the dedication Sept. 4. While a musical group played "You Are the Wind Beneath My Wings," he had program principals, including Governor Cayetano's wife, Vicky, help him release dozens of egg-colored pigeons. The pastel pink, blue and green birds flew in lovely circles before homing back to Pearl City.
Sister Francine Gries, executive director of St. Francis Hospice since its 1978 founding, had wanted an orchid drop. She got even better. The new 24-bed in-patient facility was named the Maurice J. Sullivan Family Hospice Center to be paired with the 12-bed Sister Maureen Keleher Center opened in a former residence in Nuuanu Valley in 1988.
The late Sister Maureen, former head of the St. Francis Health Care System, and Sullivan, founder of the Foodland stores, are the great pioneer names in hospice development in Hawaii. With her vision and determination and his financial help they got things moving. Sullivan's daughter, Kathleen Sullivan Wo, chaired fund-raising for the new unit.
Francine brings Maureen's determination to day-by-day administration.
The 36 beds now available for St. Francis hospice patients are the visible part of much wider outreach. Deaths "as serene and pain-free as possible," to use the words from Senator Inouye's dedication message, now occur most often at home. Hospice care teams work with both the terminally ill patients who ask for their help and, as Beter described, with the families soon to be "survivors." Results are heart-warming.
Medicare, Medicaid and most insurance plans have hospice options, but hospice care is not forced on patients. They must choose it. They also must have a doctor-certified life expectancy of less then six months and be willing to replace care aimed at curing with care focused on mental and physical comfort.
Our islands now have eight certified hospices -- three on the Big Island, two on Kauai, one on Maui and two on Oahu. Only the Oahu hospices have their own care facilities. Hospice Hawaii has five beds in a residence at Enchanted Lake. It plans more.
When care at home is inappropriate, dedicated hospital beds are used by all hospices other than St. Francis. It is worth stressing that most patients prefer to die at home where hospice teams can lighten the burden.
Maureen brought hospice to Hawaii within a year of its first start-up on the mainland. Originally it was pioneered at St. Christopher's Hospice in London in reaction to the often painful, agonizing deaths that came from carrying acute care treatment up to the very end.