A Closer Look at First Rockland Hospice Home

The first of anything is always exciting and Wednesday night, that feeling was humming in the hallways of the grand opening of Rockland County’s first hospice home: Joe Raso Hospice Residence (JRHR).

“It’s wonderful and it’s going to be a good impact on the community,” said Jim Cropsey.

Hospice of Rockland provides patients with advanced illnesses an opportunity to live in comfort with dignity surrounded by loved ones. Hospice also offers palliative care, bereavement support and information on end of life issues.

This is the second article about the new hospice. The first discussed funding, patient care and recognized those involved, while this post will look into detail the building’s rooms, accommodations and details.

“Unlike a hospital, families and friends can come and go as they wish 24/7. They can stay overnight. Pets and children can visit,” said Director of Development Lanie Etkind. “Once people are here, this is their home, and most likely this will be their last home and we want to make their stay as comfortable as possible.”

For the security system, doors locked at certain time and there is a camera at the front door to see who’s being buzzed in.

The 10-bed facility is equipped with 24/7 nurses and home help aides. There’s a chef on hand 12 hours a day to create any meal requests and the rooms are designed in a way to accommodate the patient and guests.

“It’s a wonderful organization and I used it when my mom was sick,” said Rosina Porco who has volunteered with Hospice for a year now.

At the grand opening, there were guided tours, refreshments and a short program thanking those involved followed by Tess McCormack Raso performing the ribbon cutting.

“The hospice mission really isn’t just about the patient, but the family too. Here the patient and the family are really under our care and we try to make both really comfortable in their time of need,” said Etkind. This idea of the hospice home catering for both patient and family was thoroughly planned throughout the building.

Design Theme

The hospice home is located in a secluded, serene, wooded area and because of the natural landscape, the repeating theme is ‘trees’.

“We think that this residence will meet the needs of the community. When you walk in, you get the sense that it’s a home,” said Director of Residence Linda Domizio. “We brought the outside in with the small details.”

In the main great room is a pair of glass water wall panels of an engraved tree created by local artist Betsy Franco Feeney. It recognizes major donors to the campaign.

Instead of being numbered rooms, the residence rooms are named after certain trees, such as the spruce room and cherry room.

Community Areas

“We did a lot of research over the years preparing for this, visiting hospice residences across the country and talking to residents and directors across the country finding out what works, what doesn’t work,” said Etkind.

Through the main doors is the foyer followed by the great room. On opposite sides of the great room are the water walls.

Off of the great room is a family room named after John and Mary Grant.

“John Grant was a former county executive and chairman of the (Hospice) board when we embarked on this mission. He too did not live to see this done, but he helped raise a lot of the money for it and was on board the entire way.”

The concept of this family room is for guests or patients to come and watch TV or kids can play in the open space in the floor.

“We got to know John as the husband of Mary,” said Hospice’s Executive Director Amy Stern. “We had the privilege of taking care of Mary and ultimately John.” The Grant family was at Wednesday’s grand opening.

There’s an office area with a staff lounge and a welcome desk as well as a solarium, which will be used as a multi purpose room for times when a family would need bereavement privacy after a loved one dies, meetings between staff and prospective families, for staff training, or prayer and meditation.

In the dining area, a chef will be on site 12 hrs a day, who will prepare meals for patients as requested. Meals can be eaten in the dining area or in their rooms. A kosher niche is available as needed.

“With only 10 people, you can have more customized meals,” said Etkind, adding that visiting family members can also order from the kitchen and there is a 24/7 pantry open to the patients with hot and cold beverage service, a microwave and snacks.

Dining tables are square so that people can eat separately, in small groups or push them together for communal meals for occasions such as holidays or birthdays.

“Joe Lagana removed any flavor of institutionalism and made it very beautiful,” said Catherine Nowicki. “To make the end of life more acceptable, this is the kind of place to be in.“

“Code required us to make these wide hallways, but to keep it from looking like a hospital, we made these conversation niches. They warm up the space and also allow guests (to give patients some privacy) but be a stone’s throw away.”

With an on-site laundry room, staff will do personal laundry for patients while bed linens and towels will be cleaned off-site.

There are three full bathrooms in the building, two of which have showers that will be used by patients or can be used by visiting family. One of the restrooms also has a changing station. The third bathroom has a special spa tub. A chair goes to the rooms to get the patients and they can be seated or lying down. The tub fills up with water inside the walls and the water heats up. A door on the side of the tub opens and the patient goes in. The chair fits in by hooking onto tracks on the bottom of the tub. Then the water fills up the tub.

“The typical way of putting a patient into a tub is that they use these lifts. They swing them out of their chair and into the tub, which can be scary and disconcerting,” said Etkind.

“The spa tub is comforting and ... is known to alleviate symptoms of terminal illness. They just stay on the chair from beginning to end.” She added that the bathroom floor was heated and a massage table will be brought in for massage therapy if the patient wants it. There is also music and pet therapy as well.

There is a full basement downstairs with storage and an oxygen system. There is a generator outside.

Enclosed on three sides by two wings and the great room is the courtyard with the Jeffrey David Walerstein Walk of Honor. The walkway has dedicated stones as part of ongoing fundraising efforts. There will be patio tables outside and Etkind said they hope to have walking trails in the future. Beyond the courtyard is a large pond.

The Rooms

“We’ve dedicated most of our resources to the patient spaces. One of the things we learned was that the patients that come here are very sick and most of them stay in their rooms,” said Etkind.

The rooms are left mostly bare on purpose so that the patient can put their own personal touch on it.

“We want them to come in and make it their home. The décor is a little different, but all rooms are furnished the exact same way.”

Each room has a thermostat and windows line the walls to allow as much natural light as possible.

“There are tons of windows. We’ve really taken advantage of our beautiful surroundings. You’ll notice that, in the patient rooms, the windows are really low. That was designed on purpose so that if you’re laying in the bed, you can still see out the window.”

The bed is a special type that prevents bed sores and adjusts. It also does everything that a hospital bed can do, but is made to look like a bed.

“It’s the most beautiful thing. Everything here is so lively and refreshing,” said Ethel Stern. “Nothing is depressing here.”

Doors are extra wide so the beds can go out; for example, if someone wants to go outside on a nice day but can’t leave their bed, the wide doors allow for this.

Inside the rooms are also sofa-beds for overnight guests. “Every room has a bathroom, but not a shower, because what we found (in researching other hospice homes) is that once they’re here, patients aren’t really taking their own showers.”

Out of the 10 rooms, two rooms are set aside for in-patient care (those who require a higher level of care).

“For patients who would have normally gone to the hospital for pain or symptom management and they can come here and get a higher level of care than the other eight that are more residential.“

Open House

Open House is Thursday, Feb. 16 from 3-7 p.m. and Friday, Feb. 17 from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.  There will be guided tours and light refreshments and opportunities to review referral protocol. There’s no parking available on site so an ongoing shuttle service between the residence and the Gracepoint Gospel Fellowship will be offered.

RSVP with Lisa at 845.634.4974 or Ldenburg@HospiceOfRockland.org

Staff was shown the hospice home on Monday and donors came Tuesday. Major donors and key players were invited on Wednesday for the ribbon cutting grand opening and newly-hired staff will be trained next week after the open house days.