Hospice Circle of Love staff

February 29, 2008 05:51 pm

— Hospice Circle of Love is in the planning stages of building a free-standing inpatient hospice facility. Executive Director Cathy Graber said they are in the early stages of a capital campaign to raise $4.5 million for the facility.
In 2005, the Oklahoma Legislature passed a law allowing free-standing inpatient hospices in Oklahoma for the first time. These facilities can be used as transition from hospital to home. This allows hospice staff to further stabilize a patient and teach family members how to care for patients at home. An inpatient hospice also can be used as a place for a patient to stay during a short-term respite period for caregivers and as a place to get pain or symptoms under control during a crisis.
In November 2007, Cathy Graber, executive director, Kathie Butler, patient care coordinator and board member Dr. Henry Harnish, and his wife, Lorene, attended a forum on inpatient hospices in New Orleans. The forum was designed to teach participants about the challenges and opportunities in providing facility-based hospice care. Sessions included strategies for facility development, inpatient unit uses and design and planning.
Hospice Circle of Love has completed a feasibility study that showed an inpatient hospice would be an asset to this community, especially because Enid is a regional health care center, Graber said.