Florida-based St. Francis Reflections Lifestage Care recently opened a new inpatient hospice care center inside the Melbourne Regional Medical Center. A swelling demand for hospice in the community spurred the unit’s development.
The new 10-bed inpatient unit is located on the second floor of the medical facility and features a home-like environment for patients and their families. Each patient room of the St. Francis Reflections Melbourne Care Center includes a private bathroom and overnight space for loved ones. The center also has a family room with a kitchenette and a quiet room for reflection.
The unit allows for expanded access to inpatient hospice care in the community during a time of increasing need, according to Ron Gicca, president of Melbourne Regional Medical Center.
“The compassionate palliative care services that are available to the Melbourne community are so greatly appreciated,” Gicca said in an announcement. “We are thankful the community will now have access to hospice care close to home to service the growing need.”
A team of St. Francis Reflections hospice and palliative care clinicians and physicians will serve patients at the center when their care is no longer manageable in other settings. Volunteers, social workers, chaplains and bereavement counselors also make up the center’s staff.
The hospice provider began as an all-volunteer organization in 1977 and provides pediatric palliative care and grief support services in addition to hospice. Formerly Hospice of St. Francis, the organization rebranded in 2020 to reflect its expanded scope of community-based services in an area with a growing need for serious illness and end-of-life care.
Similar to national trends, demographic tailwinds are pushing up demand for hospice in Florida. Seniors are projected to represent nearly a third, or 32.5%, of the state’s overall population by 2030, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This is a hike from about a quarter of adults 65 and older currently living in the state.
The Sunshine State in 2018 ranked third nationwide for hospice utilization at 57.9% among Medicare decedents, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. Only Utah and Arizona saw higher rates at 59.4% and 59.2%, respectively.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported in 2019 that more than 140,700 patients utilized the Medicare Hospice Benefit statewide, with reimbursement totalling more than $1.9 billion.
The new center is St. Francis Reflection’s third hospice care facility in Brevard County, with the two others located in Titusville and Merritt Island, Florida.
The number of seniors 60 and older totaled 577,550 in the county alone during 2018, according to a report from the Florida Department of Elder Affairs and the Brevard County Commission on Aging. Nearly 33,000 of these seniors are medically underserved, the report indicated.
“We are excited to expand our footprint in Brevard County and meet the growing needs of our community,” said St. Francis Reflections President and CEO Joe Killian. “St. Francis Reflections has more than four decades of experience offering quality and compassionate care with an individualized focus on what matters most for each patient and family.”
Companies featured in this article:
Brevard County Commission on Aging, Florida Department of Elder Affairs, Hospice of St. Francis, National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization
