Nathan Adelson Hospice never forgets mission

Saturday, Sept. 9, 2000 | 10:31 a.m.

After watching local philanthropist and hospital administrator Nathan Adelson struggle with cancer in 1977, Adelson's son and local businessmen sought a way to better comfort those dying.

The next year a hospice program to give emotional and physical support to people in the last six months of their lives was founded and named after the late community leader.

To see that everyone receives care, the hospice opened as a nonprofit entity with the mission that no one, regardless of insurance or financial resources, be turned away.

It served seven people its first year.

Today an average of 200 people receive inpatient and outpatient care daily, and this month the hospice opens a second inpatient facility at 3391 N. Buffalo Drive, to serve residents in the northwest.

Like its 20-bed sister facility at 4141 S. Swenson St., the new 12-bed hospice offers oversized rooms with a guest bed for family members who want to stay with the patient.

Michael Delaney, Nathan Adelson Hospice spokesman, says the new facility has "been greatly anticipated. We're consistently at capacity."

There are only seven hospices in the area, and Nathan Adelson is the only nonprofit. Its patients range from infants to seniors.

Although most hospice patients are served in their own homes, those who need further attention are treated at Swenson Street facility.

"There are hundreds of people out there," Delaney said. "We're here to help them with that transition, walk them through that last six months of life so they know they're not alone. If they can't get here, we get people there."

A hospice's mission is to make a dying patient as comfortable as possible. At Nathan Adelson, patients receive physical, emotional and spiritual care and are treated to different therapies: pet, water, music and aromatherapy.

"There is such a thing as a good death," foundation director Judith Hantin said. "It can be pain free, your family is with you, you're in your own home."

Those staying at the inpatient facilities are treated in a homelike environment that are open to family visits around the clock. Staff includes physicians, nurses, social workers, clergy and volunteer bereavement personnel.

"There's a comfort level here," she said. "It doesn't look like a hospital and doesn't smell like a hospital. "

Attention is also provided to families of patients. Grief counseling and support classes are offered. Bereavement counseling is provided up to 13 months after a person has died.

Up to 75 children who have lost a loved one go to Camp Marisopa each summer to learn about dying and work through the grieving process.

Despite tremendous growth in the Las Vegas Valley and waiting lists to receive care, Nathan Adelson Hospice representatives hold steadfast to the original mission: to serve anyone medically eligible.

When asked if maintaining a nonprofit status is difficult, Hantin said the Nathan Adelson Hospice Foundation is "constantly out there searching for those additional dollars."

"Medicare has helped," she said. Whatever isn't covered by Medicare or private insurance is raised through events, grants, memorial donations, wills and bequests.

The bulk of the foundation's funds go toward paying for care for patients without insurance or financial resources. Hantin said an average of $700,000 a year is spent on such patients.

Will the day come when the hospice will not be able to fulfill its mission?

"We can't even think that way," Hantin said.