Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center received an anonymous $10 million donation, the largest gift in the hospital’s history, earmarked for a new palliative and hospice care center which is set to open in 2017, DHMC announced on March 20. Providing in-patient attention outside of a hospital atmosphere, the center will care for patients at the end of their lives and those with life-threatening illnesses, who often have complex needs that are difficult or impossible to treat at home.
DHMC plans to construct the 12-bed facility in a structure separate from the existing hospital, said project consultant Ira Byock, a Geisel School of Medicine professor who served as DHMC’s director of palliative medicine from 2003 to 2013.
The building will include common spaces for sleeping, as well as community kitchens where families can cook for loved ones and themselves. The center will also house physical therapy facilities and specialized services like bathing facilities and a barber and beauty shop, Byock said.
“What we really wanted was a place where we could admit patients who needed the kind of care, that shouldn’t happen in a hospital but could happen in an in-patient hospice facility,” said DHMC chief medical officer Edward Merrens ’88.
Since the center will cost about $20 million total, DHMC will fundraise the remaining $10 million and plans to hold a drive targeted at the Upper Valley and other northern New England communities.
Byock expressed confidence that the project would attract regional support.
“It’s important that the community feel ownership for this center,” Byock said. “DHMC is investing significant resources and time and energy but really sees it as resource for the region and population.”
The center plans to partner with existing providers to expand hospice care region-wide, Byock said. The facility will coordinate programming for regional nurses and social workers to smooth the transition between in-home treatment, hospice care and other Upper Valley services.
The new center will act as a resource for regional palliative care providers who work with patients and families, Geisel professor Meredith MacMartin said.
Multiple hospice services already operate in the Upper Valley, including the Visiting Nurse and Hospice of Vermont and New Hampshire, a non-profit organization that provides in-home care. The organization serves over 100 towns in New Hampshire and Vermont and receives over half of its patients from the hospital, development and community relations director Catherine Hogan said.
Hogan said the new center will educate people about end-of-life care, increase the availability of hospice services and better integrate the palliative care services into the local community.
DHMC is developing the center not only as a clinical center but also as a center for teaching and palliative care research, Merrens said, adding that students will conduct hospice research through an existing fellowship.
Byock said he hopes that the center will become a national leader in hospice and palliative care.
The plan to establish a center began after a study found that there was an unmet need to care for patients with advanced and complex illnesses throughout the entire region, Byock said. The study determined that a center would serve as a helpful resource for patients and families.
Hospice and palliative care centers provide end-of-life treatment, pain management and emotional comfort to patients, as well as grief counseling and spiritual support for families, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
Geisel recently received a $6.25 million gift to support neurological research from the estate of Susan Diamond, the medical school announced on Feb. 3.
Amelia Rosch contributed reporting.
