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VNA Inpatient Hospice Groundbreaking

Date: 05/15/2009

Groundbreaking Ceremony - May 14, 2009

News Release

Contact: Debbie Kaylor, Director Customer Relations
VNA
724-431-3283
dkaylor@vna.com

VNA Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for New Inpatient Hospice Facility

(Butler, PA, May 20, 2009) The Visiting Nurses Association recently held a groundbreaking ceremony to announce the start of their new Inpatient Hospice Facility.
This facility will be located on a 5-acre site on Technology Drive in Butler Township near
Benbrook Medical Center. Pictured Left to Right are Kristy Wright, President/CEO of VNA Foundation; Margaret Irvine Weir, President of NexTier Bank and Honorary Co-Chair of the VNA Legacy for Life Campaign; Carolyn Rizza, Chair of VNA Hospice Board; and Cathy Glasgow, Chair of VNA Foundation Board and Co-chair of VNA Legacy for Life Campaign. Not pictured: Janice Phillips Larrick, Co-Chair of VNA Legacy for Life Campaign.

While VNA Hospice always strives to help patients remain in their own homes for as long as possible, many will eventually reach a point when they are experiencing acute pain or distressing symptoms that can’t be managed at home. With the new facility, patients will be able to receive care from the compassionate VNA Hospice staff members with whom they have forged bonds of trust over previous weeks. This state of the art 12 bed facility slated to open in the winter of 2009, will also have a common living room, private rooms for family meetings, a shared kitchen, a nondenominational chapel, elegantly landscaped gardens and walkways and special accommodations for pediatric hospice patients.

“We are proud to announce this new project, fulfilling a need in the community and furthering our commitment to provide care and support for people in our community,” said Kristy Wright, CEO of VNA. “The in-patient hospice is an extension of the services VNA currently offers, and the new facility will provide the comforting care that we would all want during an end of life experience.”

During the groundbreaking ceremony, VNA also announced the Legacy for Life capital campaign to raise funding for the inpatient facility. The cost of construction is $5 million; the goal of the fundraising campaign is $2 million, with the additional funds coming from grant applications over an 18-month period. A website has been set up specifically for the Legacy for Life campaign at www.vnalegacyforlife.com

For nearly 30 years, VNA Hospice services have been providing quality hospice care in the western Pennsylvania community for patients who would benefit from supportive rather than curative treatment. As the population continues to age, the need for quality hospice services in both the home care and in-patient venues has increased dramatically, particularly in western Pennsylvania, which has the oldest population in the state and the third oldest in the nation. The VNA Inpatient Hospice Facility will help fill a void in the community.