Gulfside Hospice & Pasco Palliative Care

In the beginning, it was known as Central Gulfside Hospice, serving only patients in New Port Richey.

Now, a quarter-century later, it’s known as Gulfside Hospice & Pasco Palliative Care, with about 1,500 admissions a year across Pasco County.

The organization has 14 locations, including a corporate resource office in Land O’ Lakes, clinical branch offices in New Port Richey and Dade City, four inpatient care centers, five thrift shops, a bereavement center, and outreach counseling center.

It has about 265 employees, plus contract employees.

No matter where it delivers services, Gulfside has the same goals in mind, said Linda Ward, its president and chief executive officer.

“A lot of people think that hospice is a place,” Ward said. “Hospice is a concept. The concept is really comfort and quality, peace, dignity.”

Across the country, about 90 percent of hospice patients choose to receive their care at home, Ward said.

Gulfside delivers its hospice care in a wide array of settings including retirement homes, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, apartments, or other residences, standalone hospice centers — wherever the person lives, Ward said. Gulfside’s team manages the patient’s pain and symptoms, and assists the patient with the emotional and spiritual aspects of end-of-life issues.

It provides necessary medications as well as medical equipment and supplies. Its team coaches families in caring for patients and dealing with a wide array of issues that arise.

When Gulfside was preparing to open a residential care center in Zephyrhills, it took great care in making sure the center was designed with its patients and their loved ones in mind, Ward said. That center opened four years ago, with a goal to create a special environment.

When visitors arrive there, they walk through a space that has the feel of an Italian piazza. Natural light pours through the skylight in the courtyard’s high ceiling. A collection of tables offers visitors a place to sit and relax. A decorative fountain is the focal centerpiece of the room.

Before residential architect Peter Horstman designed the center, Gulfside told him what they were trying to achieve.

“We basically painted a picture of what it was that we wanted patients and families and visitors to experience as soon as they walk through the door,” Ward said.

People are walking into the center with a lot on their minds and the goal is to make the surroundings pleasant and relaxing, Ward said.

Besides spacious patient rooms, the center has a family room that looks out over a pond, a place where visitors and patients can play board games, a children’s play room, and a chapel, complete with stained glass windows.

Providing a quality environment is just one part of the equation, Ward said.

“You can have the most beautiful environment ever, but it’s not everything. It’s really not the most important thing,” Ward said.

Quality of care is vital, and that means having a capable staff that is committed to serving patients, Ward said.

Even though hospice has been around in the United States since the 1970s and has grown substantially since Medicare started covering it in the 1980s, some people still do not understand what it is, Ward said. Some health care professionals remain hesitant to make a hospice referral because they have been trained to try to heal patients, and for them, hospice feels like an admission of failure.

Some patients are even reluctant to accept a hospice referral.

The term “hospice” can provoke fear, Ward explained. “They (patients) think, ‘Oh, my gosh, they’ve called in hospice, that’s it.’”

Some doctors understand the value of referring patients to hospice when there’s still time for the patient to benefit from the available services, Ward said. During those final stages, hospice can help not only the patient, but the patient’s loved ones, too.

Many patients, by they are referred for hospice, may only have a few days to live, Ward said. “That’s when a disservice has been done to the person. The hospice experience is so much more than just the pain and symptom control for the patient. That’s the primary initial first goal — get the person out of pain, immediately. That’s our No. 1 immediate task.

“But then, it’s a holistic approach,” she said, involving a team that includes a social worker, a chaplain, a certified nurse, a physician and a certified nurse’s aid. They help the patient with everything from pain relief to personal hygiene, as well as such issues as spiritual guidance and family dynamics.

“In the world in which we live, families are really having tough times,” Ward said. “The recession was so hard on people, and they’re still trying to come out of it. And so you’ve got those financial factors and psychosocial issues, and now you add terminal illness on top of it, and that’s such a high-stress situation.

“And so, our social workers and chaplains – they are so highly involved in helping people through these things,” Ward said.

Medicare benefits can be used to reimburse hospice providers for patients who have a prognosis of six months or less, Ward said. Many patients, however, outlive their prognosis and can continue to qualify for the services.

Many hospice providers, including Gulfside, also have a separate palliative care program, which aims to provide pain relief for patients who are not hospice-appropriate yet, but ultimately will be, Ward said.

Those patients do not qualify for hospice benefits, but can qualify under Medicare Part B, which has benefits for people who have chronic illness, Ward said.

As it celebrates its 25th anniversary, Gulfside is planning for its future.

“Right now, we’re looking at continued partnerships with other health care providers, to diversify us and grow our business,” Ward said.

Gulfside has an active palliative program with Medical Center of Trinity, she said, noting it does about 30 palliative consults a month with the hospital. Gulfside also has a close relationship with Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel.

Gulfside’s residential center in Zephyrhills has strong ties to Florida Hospital Zephyrhills, Ward said. “Ninety-nine percent of all of our patients who come to this care center come from Florida Hospital Zephyrhills.”

Published July 2, 2014

See this story in print: Click Here