Facility will serve all of Pasco County
By Kyle LoJacono
Staff Writer
ZEPHYRHILLS (Change to Pasco County) — Gulfside Regional Hospice, which provides hospice care throughout Pasco County, opened its 12th site Feb. 5 in Zephyrhills.
“The goal of opening the new center is to provide a high level of care,” said Kathleen Postiglione, Gulfside Regional chief operating officer. “We will have new and different elements to help make someone’s last moments the best ones.”
Postiglione has worked in hospice care for five years.
The new location, 5760 Dean Dairy Road in Zephyrhills, is a 21,000-square-foot, 12-bed facility that cost $6.5 million. The Zephyrhills center will have 25 employees and more than 80 volunteers.
“The new center is a Tuscan themed villa with a great view all around,” said Linda Ward, Gulfside Regional president and CEO. “The new center is mainly for people in Zephyrhills and Dade City, but there is no other inpatient center in Wesley Chapel, Land O’ Lakes or Lutz, so we will see patients from those areas and all of Pasco County too.”
Ward has been in the healthcare industry for 25 years and has spent the last five and a half years with Gulfside Regional.
“I absolutely love giving this critical care to people,” Ward said of hospice work. “I’ve always worked with people near death, so this is a culmination of what I’ve done my whole professional life…It is one of the great parts of the healthcare industry.”
Postiglione agrees with Ward.
“I went back to school after being a chemist and fell in love with hospice care,” she said. “My first husband died at an early age, so I know what it means to lose someone…He died in a car accident, so he didn’t have hospice care, but I think that had something to do with me getting into it.”
Postiglione has since remarried to her current husband, John Postiglione.
The process of opening the new center started in February 2007 when Gulfside Regional was awarded a certificate of need to build the new inpatient center. The groundbreaking ceremony was in October 2008.
“The new center will offer many different methods to provide the best and most comfortable care for patients,” Postiglione said. “Some of the therapies we offer in Zephyrhills are aromatherapy and message therapy. We have nutrients to give the best food for the patients’ situations and many other methods to make life more comfortable.”
While some of these methods are being used at older Gulfside Regional inpatient centers, they will all be used together at the Zephyrhills facility.
“An important part of the center is the tranquil setting,” Ward said. “We wanted the whole center to be visually pleasing, so we have outdoor fish ponds and butterfly and rose gardens. We also will have salon treatments available because looking good is an important part of feeling good.”
Part of that tranquil setting was donated by Lorraine Hadley, 84, who gave a fountain worth $100,000 and a stained glass window worth $20,000 to the new center.
“At my age money doesn’t really matter,” Hadley said. “I don’t have any kids and I wanted to leave something beautiful behind…When you see the new center it is something you want to give back to because it’s so beautiful.”
Hadley moved to Pasco County in 1984 and currently lives in New Port Richey.
“I just love working in hospice and with these people,” she said. “I get back three-fold what I give to them.”
Gulfside Regional treats patients with many different conditions each year, but Postiglione said the most common one is cancer.
“We also treat people with breathing problems and cardiac problems each year,” she said. “We help whenever we’re needed.”
Postiglione said the patient aspect was always the focus while building the center.
“We kept to our mission statement all the way,” she said. “We really believe in it and feel that giving people peace and comfort each day is the most important part of what we do.”
Gulfside Regional Hospice mission statement
It is the mission of Gulfside Regional Hospice Inc. to provide compassionate, quality care to individuals and their loved ones facing life-limiting illnesses. We will help you to live each day with dignity and in peace and comfort.
Other Gulfside Regional Hospice locations
East Pasco Administrative and Clinical Office and Bereavement Center, 37826 Sky Ridge Circle in Dade City, (813) 780-1235
Hospice House at The Edwinola, 14235 Edwinola Way in Dade City, (352) 567-2888
Zephyrhills Thrift Shoppe, 36504 SR 54 in Zephyrhills, (813) 788-5461
Dade City Thrift Shoppe, 37925 Sky Ridge Circle in Dade City, (813) 782-7200
Lutz Thrift Shoppe, 21780 SR 54 in Lutz, (813) 909-0485
Gulfside Center for Hospice Care at Trinity, 2144 Welbilt Blvd. in Trinity, (727) 376-3658
Hospice House, 6230 Lafayette St. in New Port Richey, (727) 841-6316
Bereavement Center New Port Richey, 6224 Lafayette St. in New Port Richey, (727) 844-3946
New Port Richey Thrift Shoppe, 3601 Universal Plaza in New Port Richey, (727) 842-7262
Hudson Thrift Shoppe, 12154 US 19 in Bayonet Point, (727) 861-4900
West Pasco Administrative and Clinical Office, 6117 Trouble Creek Road?in New Port Richey, (727) 845-5707
