OpusCare of Florida recently opened a new inpatient hospice facility near the state’s southern tip.
OpusCare received a greenlight to launch the center from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), which awarded the organization a certificate of need for Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. This made the facility the first freestanding hospice center in that region.
The process of launching the facility was several years in the making and came at a higher-than-expected financial cost, but OpusCare expects the new location to help fill a significant community need, according to President and CEO Dr. Ismael Roque-Velasco.
“We started with a dream of building a freestanding inpatient hospice outside of the hospital for patients and families to have a sense of place and belonging who needed it,” Roque-Velasco told Hospice News. “It was painful to get here and took a little longer, but we were finally able to launch services.”
Initially scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2022, the 13-suite hospice center began operations last week.
OpusCare began its search for a location nearly six years ago and purchased the land in 2019, according to Roque-Velasco. The project, including construction, came with an estimated price tag between $10 million and $12 million. This was a heavier financial lift than anticipated, and the provider secured bank loans to bear the costs.
“It was a big economic challenge, but the community of south Florida will ultimately benefit from the investment of a lot of people putting their heart and soul into this facility,” Roque-Velasco said. “It was a labor of love, but truly a dream come true.”
Established in 1991, OpusCare provides hospice and palliative care in Florida, Georgia and Texas.
Pandemic-related headwinds delayed the project, including soaring prices for protective personal equipment and staff travel expenses, Roque-Velasco said. These have fallen slightly as the outbreak has subsided, but remain above pre-pandemic levels, he added. Additionally, it took time and effort to find and train a sufficient clinical workforce.
All patient rooms in the facility are equidistant to a centralized nursing station to facilitate quick responses to urgent care needs, Roque-Velasco stated. The center also features a family gathering space, multi-denominational chapel, private areas for meditation and bereavement and an in-house pharmacy.
OpusCare persisted in its efforts on opening the center in response to rising demand and the need for Rising demand and the need for expanded end-of-life care for patients. The building is located “right in the middle of a hub of hospitals who lack a setting to discharge patients with complex care needs,” Roque-Velasco said.
“Having the building and staffing capacity to manage discharged patients in a major, terminal health decline when families either cannot handle it at home or don’t have a home for the patient – that was the major criteria here,” Roque-Velasco said. “It’s designed to support patients at their most critical stages in life to meet all of their needs in one place.”
Adults 65 and older represent 16.9% of the Miami-Dade County, Florida, population and nearly a quarter (23.7%) of Monroe County residents, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Statewide, seniors will comprise 32.5% of the state’s overall population by 2030, the bureau projected.
Hospice utilization runs high in the Sunshine State. About 154,521 Medicare decedents utilized hospice in Florida during 2021, second only to California that year (156,000), U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported.
As for future de novo growth across Florida or in other states, no immediate plans are currently in the works for OpusCare, according to Roque-Velasco.
“It’s not in our immediate plans, but we keep our eyes open for opportunities,” Roque-Velasco told Hospice News. “In Texas we have a large operation to expand, but it’s not in our plans right now. Our main focus is to have everything fine-tuned at this new facility to ensure patient and family satisfaction and quality.”
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