OLDS — The Olds & District Hospice Society (ODHS) has struck a committee to figure out the future of hospice facilities in the community — whether more are needed and if so, where they should be located.
ODHS executive director Mary Smith says the committee is expected to report to the society's board of directors by about the end of June.
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on making a person’s end of life journey as comforting as possible.
Currently, the ODHS has offices in the old Mountain View Credit Union building in Uptowne Olds and has two hospice suites in the Olds Seasons Encore assisted living facility.
“I think that the two suites have served us quite well. But as we move into the future, there could be a need to have an additional bed or an additional two beds,” Smith said during an interview.
“We have seen more out-of-area admissions. Our last three have been not Olds admissions, they’ve been in the surrounding area, so as the Hospice Society broadens their reach, then our suites will be busier.”
Smith said when she refers to “beds” she means suites.
She said the committee will examine what the demand for hospice suites is likely to be in the future in order to determine the best path forward for the society.
If it’s determined that more suites are needed, there could be a variety of options to solve that need, she indicated.
“Seasons Encore has been a great partner. We could look at talking with them if we felt we needed another suite. Mountain View Seniors’ Housing is a non-profit in town. There are other outlying communities that we could look at,” she said.
However, at this point, constructing a standalone facility to accommodate society offices and suites may be premature.
“The operational cost of having a standalone (facility) would be considerable, so we would need a lot of buy-in from our community to go that route,” she said.
