Protesters blast UPMC decision to close Somerset hospice
Jul. 5—SOMERSET, Pa. — When Randy Ickes' battle with cancer started to become a losing fight this spring, the Jennerstown native turned to UPMC's In Touch Hospice House in Somerset.
For the past two months, Ickes said, he's been treated by hospice employees like part of their family.
"Everyone knows their reputation," said Ickes, describing the facility as "caring and personal."
On Tuesday, Ickes was facing the reality that he'll soon have to stay elsewhere — and facing officials from the health system that made the decision to close the 10-bed inpatient facility.
Ickes was among a crowd of more than 120 people who gathered outside UPMC Somerset to plead for the hospital's owners to drop the plan to close its affiliated hospice. Despite heavy rain at times, the group stood outside the hospital doors for an hour, holding umbrellas and signs that read "Save Hospice House."
They got a chance to voice their concerns to UPMC Somerset President Andrew Rush.
"When my aunt was dying ... she had angels on earth at her side," Josette Mickey, of Berlin, told him, referencing the center's staff. "They stayed with her, held her hand and talked her across to the light."
"Where can you get that kind of service anywhere else?" she said, before answering her own question. "You can't, around here."
Rush said that there's no disputing the level of care people have received at In Touch Hospice House over the years.
"Their inpatient services have been extraordinary," he said.
But the demand for inpatient hospice care has decreased in recent years, Rush said. Time after time, when people are admitted to UPMC Somerset with serious health issues, they choose to remain in their own homes when given the choice about hospice services, he said.
"If they have the option ... they usually want to be at home with loved ones," Rush said.
Many among the crowd protesting the upcoming Aug. 1 closure questioned that, saying some don't have — or want — the option to stay at home.
Gary Marker, a 30-year hospice volunteer, was one of several who questioned if the center's $23 billion parent company, UPMC, was choosing profit over people.
'You can't beat the service these people are receiving here," the Rockwood man said. And the center's beds, he added, are often filled.
Rush indicated that the overall decrease in demand for the hospice's services helped lead to the decision. It's a reason that facilities such as In Touch Hospice House are being closed, not just in Somerset, but also across the nation, he said.
He estimated that UPMC Somerset averages more than 150 to 200 patients receiving hospice care at any given time — almost all of them at home.
There's a demand for those specialized hospice and home health-type services that is only growing — and UPMC is preparing to hire additional nurses and to train existing ones for the job to meet that demand, he said.
Rush said efforts are also being ramped up to educate Somerset County residents about those at-home services and to eliminate the misconception that hospice care is only available for those in their final days of life.
For people dealing with serious medical issues, including terminal cancer, hospice care might be the right choice for someone, even if they still may have a year to live, he said.
UPMC is working with employees during the closure of the hospice to place them in other UPMC positions, the company said.
The building itself, built through a donation by the Wheeler family in 2009 at 1474 N. Center Ave., will continue to operate as an office for hospice and home health administrators, while plans aren't yet final for the soon-to-be-vacant portion of the building, UPMC officials said.
