Improving Access to Care
Hospice of Palm Beach County Opens Sixth Inpatient Unit at Pinecrest Rehabilitation Hospital

Hospice of Palm Beach County opened the Hospice and Palliative Care Unit at Pinecrest Delray on December 4, 2006.  "Our mission is to provide end-of-life care to everybody in Palm Beach County who needs and wants it," said Hospice of Palm Beach County’s Clinical Medical Director Richard S. Levene, DO, FAAHPM. In response to an increased need for hospice services in the southern part of the county, Hospice of Palm Beach County will now provide short term acute care for its patients and families in their 14 bed unit, operated by their full time hospice and palliative care team. The 9000 square foot facility features 12 private rooms and one semi-private room, a family room, kitchen and counseling rooms, all in homelike surroundings. "Having a hospice unit in a medical facility gives us access to the high-tech and sophisticated medical diagnostic testing and treatment modalities that are available in an acute care hospital," Levene said.

Hospice of Palm Beach County’s six inpatient units, along with contract beds in other area facilities, supplement services they provide in homes, nursing facilities or assisted living facilities, allowing patients to remain close to family and friends. Hospice of Palm Beach County also operates the Bethesda Memorial Hospice and Palliative Care Unit at Bethesda Memorial Hospital (Boynton Beach), the Jay Robert Lauer Hospice and Palliative Care Unit at JFK Medical Center (Atlantis), the free-standing Charles W. Gerstenberg Hospice Center (West Palm Beach), the Hospice and Palliative Care Unit at Good Samaritan Medical Center (West Palm Beach), and the Hospice and Palliative Care Unit at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center (Palm Beach Gardens).

"We’re there to serve every community and every family," said Dave Fielding, President and CEO of Hospice of Palm Beach County. "I am pleased that our southernmost interdisciplinary team, located in Boca Raton, now has access to our inpatient unit in Delray Beach, for their patients and families. It also expands hospice and palliative care services as an addition to the services provided for patients in Delray Medical Center or Pinecrest Rehabilitation Hospital."