WEXFORD - Good Samaritan Hospice is the only free-standing, non-profit hospice program providing both a home care and residential hospice in Allegheny, Beaver and Butler counties.

Good Samaritan Hospice believes hospice is a ministry, which has the philosophy that each person should be given comfort care at the end-of-life, when cure is not possible. It is the realization that individuals are worthy all the days of their life, and the focus is always on living, not dying. And also that all people should have the opportunity to have a dignified, comfortable death.

Much like doctors refer their patients to specialists in a specific area of care, hospice is the specialist at end of life. The goal is to keep the patient as comfortable as possible, while treating the symptoms of their disease, and enabling them to live their lives as fully as possible.

Hospice is a team approach with medical directors, nurses, nursing assistants, social workers, chaplains and trained volunteers. They focus on quality of life and comfort care ministering to the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the patients and their care givers.

Because each hospice patient and family has individualized needs, Good Samaritan Hospice team members coordinate services recognizing the patient and caregivers as the primary focus of their care.

A unique aspect of Good Samaritan Hospice is the Good Samaritan House, a residence off the Wexford exit of Interstate 79. It opened last March as an extension of Good Samaritan's home care services.

The Good Samaritan House is "home" to patients who can no longer safely remain in their own homes at the end of life.

As a Medicare-certified hospice program, a patient's insurance is billed for services provided, just as physician's bill insurance companies for their medical care. However, many people do not have adequate insurance coverage, and some have no coverage at all.

But these people are not turned away. If an appropriate referral is made, care is provided based on need.

Third party reimbursement is only a portion of what is needed to operate a non-profit hospice program. Good Samaritan Hospice provides its special program, in part, due to the generosity of friends, businesses, churches, civic groups and foundations. Good Samaritan Hospice also benefits from planned gifts. All contributions directly benefit patient care.

People also can volunteer to Good Samaritan Hospice. While people often associate hospice with sorrow, most hospice experiences include times of joy, peace and heartwarming closeness.

Community members can choose to volunteer in a variety of ways, including bereavement, clerical, fund raising, patient care and public relations. Good Samaritan Hospice volunteers receive training from the staff.

Good Samaritan Hospice, which has supported more than 1,500 patients and their families since 1998, and Concordia Lutheran Ministries recently formed a partnership to increase services to patients.

Concordia Lutheran Ministries is a continuing care retirement community of three retirement apartment dwellings and two skilled nursing facilities, Oertel Hall and Lund Care Centers on the Marwood Road campus; three assisted living facilities – Concordia at Ridgewood Place in Plum; Concordia at The Orchard in Butler and Concordia at Rebecca Residence in Allison Park, which also provides skilled nursing care; rehabilitation services, visiting nurses, Tele-CareGivers, a free service for people who are homebound, HomeHelp that is affiliated with Presbyterian SeniorCare, Adult Day Services including dementia care, on-site child care and adult care and Providence Pharmacy.

For information on Good Samaritan Hospice, call 724/933-8888 or visit

www.good-samaritanhospice.org

.

For information on Concordia Lutheran Ministries, call 724-352-1571 or visit

www.concordialm.org

.

This article was submitted by Good Samaritan Hospice.