For the last 6 years, a quaint, six-room home called the Robison Residence has been offering unique hospice care to low-income and homeless patients of Central Florida.
The one-story house is part of Florida Hospital’s Hospice of the Comforter in Altamonte Springs. It is also believed to be one of the very few free-standing hospice residential facilities in Florida.
But on the day of March 1, after 6 years, the residence is ceasing operations.
Its closure will impact 4 residents, involving Julie Nelson Day’s 84-year-old mother who has extreme respiratory issues and is slowly dying.
The family shifted her into the hospice in the month of December, partly because it charges low-income elderly like her based on a sliding scale. So on Tuesday, when Day was notified that the residence is closing, she panicked.
“It is just not right,” claimed Day, who lives in Massachusetts. “They have a moral obligation to care for these sufferers.”
Also legally, the unique hospice care is obligate to safely discharge the sufferers, said Amy O’Rourke, president of Cameron Group Aging Life Care Services.
Hospital officials claimed that social workers will work with families to find them an alternative. They are also providing them the option to transfer their loved one to an area Adventist Care Center nursing home. There, the health system will sustain to pay for their room and board and unique hospice care.
Florida Hospital officials stated that they decided to close the home because it has remained a financial burden to Hospice of the Comforter, despite financial donations. Another key reason, they said, is Central Florida’s growing support for homeless people.
“We’re confident there are resources in Central Florida and system support for homeless sufferers needing end-of-life care,” they stated in a statement.
Day said she did not have several options for transferring her mother, because other facilities would be too costly.
She took a bit of comfort in alternatives that hospital officials are giving her, but she said she was still upset.
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