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How to help For more information on the project to build a 20-bed inpatient hospice center, call Joni Copeland, director of business development for Providence Hospice of Snohomish County, at 425-261-4812.

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Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com

Hospice group seeks 2.5-acre site in county

No facility in county available for terminal patients and families

By Sharon Salyer
Herald Writer

Providence Hospice of Snohomish County is looking for a 2.5-acre site in central Snohomish County, the first step in launching a $10 million project to build the county's only inpatient hospice center.

The 20-bed facility would care for adults and children with terminal diseases who are too ill to be treated at home, said Joni Copeland, the hospital's director of business development. The nonprofit organization hopes to open the center in about two years.

Its rooms will be outfitted with recliners so that families or friends will be able to stay and even sleep in the same room with their loved one if they want to, she said.

"It's all about making sure every patient's rights and wishes are absolutely followed," she said.

Although the organization now assists up to 300 hospice patients a day, all services are provided in the patient's home. Each week, about 10 of these patients are sick enough to be treated in an inpatient hospice center, Copeland said.

"It's a big need in Snohomish County," Copeland said.

However, no inpatient hospice now exists in county. Currently, the Gene & Irene Wockner Hospice Center, part of Evergreen Hospice in Kirkland, is the nearest inpatient hospice service. That's a long drive for many Snohomish County residents, she said.

The hospice organization is looking for available land in the I-5 corridor between south Everett and Smokey Point. The exact cost of the project will depend on land costs, she said.

Once a site is obtained, the hospice will take about a year to build.

Of the approximately $10 million needed for the project, the organization still needs to raise about $3 million in donations, Copeland said.

Opening of the center would cap a challenge given to the organization by one of its founders, Sister Georgette Bayless, during its 25th anniversary celebration four years ago.

Bayless announced the goal of opening an inpatient hospice center in Snohomish County.

Since then, Bayless has regularly attended planning meetings for the project, Copeland said.

"We're very excited," she said. "We just know this is going to be such an asset in Snohomish County.

"It's a dream and we're ready to make that dream happen."



Reporter Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.