Pathways readies new hospice center in south Fort Collins

For the first time in its 44-year history, Pathways has a new inpatient care center for people nearing the end of their lives and their families.

The center is waiting for final state approval but hopes to begin admitting patients within the next few weeks.

The 15,000-square-foot center at 305 Carpenter Road has a dozen patient rooms, including two negative pressure rooms for patients with infectious diseases, a commercial kitchen, a great room, gardens and a labyrinth that it moved from its administrative offices next door.  There’s room to the east for another six beds when they are needed.

“I won’t be surprised if we’re talking expansion within three to four years," Pathways President Nate Lamkin said during a tour of the facility last week.

Pathways broke ground on the new facility in May 2021 to replace and expand on the six hospice beds it has leased at McKee Medical Center in Loveland for 20 years.

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Serving Northern Colorado to the Eastern Plains, southeast Wyoming, southwest Nebraska and western Kansas, the number of beds has been increasingly inadequate as the population grows and the need increases.

Typically most hospice care takes place in a patient's home, but at times symptoms can be out of control and warrant an inpatient setting, where medications can be adjusted immediately if needed, Lamkin said during a recent tour of the facility.

Pathways typically has an average daily census of about 270 inpatient and at-home patients, Lamkin said. Even if all beds were full, hospitalized patients would represent only about 4% of its daily census.

The nonprofit inpatient center features large rooms with space for up to three family and friends to stay overnight, more family gathering areas, a nondenominational chapel and a family kitchen.

"When you lease a unit in a hospital, the space is not created for that,” Lamkin said.

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The center will also provide respite care for short stays if a primary caregiver is away or needs a break.

The $8 million center, about 15 years in the making, raised $3.1 million through a capital campaign and is continuing fundraising efforts as the facility starts to serve patients.

Most of the patient rooms and common areas were paid for by individual donors in honor of a loved one.

The chapel is named for Greg Anderson, who died of renal cell carcinoma in hospice care in February. His wife, Jane, was a Pathways board member from 2001 to 2011. 

“For my husband, his Christian faith was very important to him … we thought that was the only place that really represented him in the new facility. A place where people could go to reflect, pray, be quiet, whatever they need to do,” she said.

Lamkin said the chapel was designed to resemble a Colorado mountain lodge, with custom-glazed textured glass at the front with mountain peaks in shades of blue and white.

"Regrettably, Greg didn't live long enough to see this," Lamkin said.

Anderson died while in hospice care at Lemay Avenue Rehabilitation Center, which provided six beds after Pathways' contract with McKee expired at the end of last year.

“They have built that facility to represent a more welcoming and homey feel,” Jane Anderson said. “They want families to feel very well cared for (in a facility) that doesn’t look like an institution or hospital.”

Movable chairs rather than stationary pews provide the ability for hospital beds to be wheeled in for special events.

"Yes, this is a hospice care center, but life will happen in this space as well," said Lamkin, who expects some weddings and other life events will be celebrated there so they can include the loved one in hospice care.

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A great room across from a full kitchen and dining area incorporates a stone fireplace and a 120-year-old Steinway grand piano that former board member Mims Harris helped procure and pay for through a group of donors.

"It's an exquisite instrument and so far beyond what I expected for this space," Lamkin said.

One of the bonuses of having their own space is getting to make their own rules.

“It broke my heart during the pandemic that we couldn’t admit COVID patients” to hospice beds, Lamkin said. Because the unit was at the hospital, Pathways had to follow hospital rules, and that meant no visitors.

“I can’t imagine anything more cruel," Anderson said. "We all had to abide by the rules and I understand why, but this facility makes it possible for their family to be with their loved ones with an infectious disease."

Anderson plans to volunteer at the new center when it opens. She lost her mother at 14 when there “was not even a whisper of hospice,” she said. Her father died in a hospice facility when she was 45. “I couldn’t believe the difference between the two and all the support we had with his loss and the community around that.

“Now to have this facility available for Northern Colorado is a dream come true for me, and we deserve to have a facility like this for our communities.”

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Pathways readies new hospice center to serve Fort Collins and beyond