FY23 Sacred Heart Hospice & Palliative Care Impact Report

Thank You for Supporting Hospice & Palliative Care

Thanks to generous donors like you, PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation has distributed nearly $183,000 in the past two years to support a full spectrum of care for seriously, chronically, and terminally ill patients in our community. Philanthropic support of our Hospice and Palliative Care programs enables patients to find relief from the symptoms and stress of serious illness, improving the quality of life for both the patient and their circle of loved ones.

Our multi-disciplinary Palliative Care team helps with symptom management, provides emotional support, and facilitates conversations around future healthcare needs. Most often, palliative care is delivered alongside curative treatment. As curative options are exhausted, patients receive earlier hospice referrals so they can fully benefit from the services that our Sacred Heart Hospice care team offers.

Palliative Care has already made a tremendous difference in our community and we are preparing for future growth. Our 65-and-over population is growing, which means that more neighbors and loved ones are at risk for serious and complex illnesses. PeaceHealth is investing significant time and resources to ensure that our Palliative Care programs in Lane County and beyond can continue to grow and improve as we provide compassionate care to those in need.

Thank you for believing in our vision of empowering seriously and terminally ill patients to live as well as possible, for as long as possible. We are so grateful!

How Palliative Care is Making a Difference

At age 83, Helen had just undergone a very large, complicated surgery to address a long-term, chronic health condition. Our palliative care nurse met with Helen and her daughter to explain the path to recovery and the level of participation that full rehabilitation would require. She was able to help them refine their heathcare goals and articulate what quality of life meant to them. When Helen took a turn for the worse a few months later, she and her daughter agreed that another major surgery was not the best option. Instead, Helen chose comfort care and is now living her final days to the fullest with the help of our in-home hospice team.

Research tells us that chronic diseases account for nearly 75% of aggregate healthcare spending in the USA. To ensure that patients understand their options for medical interventions, our Palliative Care team facilitates conversations around future healthcare needs and wishes. Their expert symptom management relieves pain and discomfort, helping to reduce emergency room visits and repeat hospitalizations.

Palliative Care is so helpful to patients that 93% of people who have received it are likely to recommend it to others. Your support is truly making a difference in our community. Thank you!

Recent Fund Distributions

made possible by your gifts

 $69,304 for Palliative Care Program Support

 $50,000 for Hospice Program Support

 $50,000 for Pete Moore Hospice House Support

 $10,000 for Palliative Care Education

 $3,561 for We Honor Veterans Program

Because of You

Your gifts enable our Hospice and Palliative Care teams to bring comfort, control, dignity and peace to patients and families when they need it the most. Assistance from a skilled team can reduce symptom distress by up to 66%, leading to much improved quality of life. The education and practical assistance our teams provide help patients and their loved ones to feel less fearful and more in control to shape the life that is most meaningful to them.

Philanthropic support helps us to educate our caregivers as well. Your gifts enable us to financially support caregivers and nurses in their pursuit of more specialized chronic disease care. Their expertise ensures that our patients and families receive the very best care.

The Power of Your Giving

1,200 hospice patients served in FY22

66% reduction in symptom distress among palliative care recipients

93% of people who have received palliative care are likely to recommend it to others

$182,865 distributed to support Hospice and Palliative Care in FY21 & FY22

Helping families through the anticipated loss of a newborn

Donor funding is enabling Sacred Heart Hospice to partner with the Center for Genetics and Maternal Fetal Medicine to provide support to women and their families who face a diagnosis of an untenable pregnancy or where the infant is at high risk of dying shortly after birth.

In these cases, our specially trained nurses and social workers offer to meet with parents to prepare for how they want the birth to go, who they would want to be there, and where they want to be. For some families, the infant may be able to leave the hospital and go home with Sacred Heart Hospice support for a few hours or days. For others, this time may be very short, and Hospice interdisciplinary caregivers assist in developing a plan for other family members to have a quiet space to meet this new infant and say their goodbyes. This is a very precious and fragile time and hospice support to older siblings and parents can be invaluable.

Foundation funding in 2023 will allow the hospice team to increase its support to perinatal and pediatric patients and their families, and provide support for close family members who want to be a part of this very brief but precious life.

A Courageous Kids Camp Story

Courageous Kids Camp, a bereavement function of Sacred Heart Hospice, provides support to kids age 5 to 18 who are grieving the loss of a loved one. Because of donors like you, families never pay a fee for camp attendance.

July 2022 was the first in-person camp since 2020. As one of the activities, campers were invited to sew a special pillow made out of an article of clothing belonging to their loved one who had passed away. One camper asked for help to sew a sweatshirt for this pillow. This camper did not want to cut the precious shirt to make a smaller pillow, so our adult volunteer assisted the child with sewing closed the neck, waist and wrist openings, then filling the shirt with stuffing. The end result was an adult sized sweatshirt-pillow that this child carried with them throughout camp, intermittently hugging it as they would the full sized body of the person who would have worn that sweatshirt.

Imagine the impact such a special keepsake would have on a child. You make moments like this possible.