Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
14 | August 8, 2019 | the orland Park Prairie orland park<br />
<strong>OP</strong>Prairie.com<br />
For over 36 years, Joliet Area Community<br />
Hospice (JACH) has provided<br />
compassionate care to terminally ill<br />
adults and children, and their families,<br />
without regard to economic status. Joliet<br />
Area Community Hospice, a not-forprofit<br />
501(c)(3) organization established<br />
in 1982, is state licensed, Medicare/<br />
Medicaid certified and serves the Will,<br />
Grundy, Kendall, LaSalle, Livingston and<br />
portions of Cook, DuPage and Kankakee<br />
counties.<br />
No one in need of the services JACH<br />
provides is ever turned away due to their<br />
inability to pay. With the top priority<br />
being “quality patient care,” JACH<br />
makes every effort to meet the physical,<br />
psychological, environmental, social,<br />
spiritual, and emotional needs of the<br />
patient and his or her family as they face<br />
the end of life.<br />
Since the first patient was admitted<br />
in April of 1983, more than 32,000<br />
Pictured: Members of the JACH Board, leadership, Campaign Steering Committee chairs and honorary chairs along with<br />
Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce representative, and various construction contractors make the first dig towards the<br />
addition and renovation project at the April 24th ground breaking ceremony.<br />
patients have spent their final days and<br />
months in greater comfort because of the<br />
expert quality patient care that JACH’s<br />
interdisciplinary teams provide. In<br />
2018 alone, JACH served 2,006 hospice<br />
patients in nursing homes, long term care<br />
facilities, their personal residence and in<br />
our inpatient unit.<br />
In May 2004, Joliet Area Community<br />
Hospice proudly opened the doors to the<br />
first free-standing hospice home inpatient<br />
unit in Illinois. Today the structure<br />
remains a sound, well-built facility that<br />
has served the community well. What<br />
we have learned since 2004 is that there<br />
is a need in our inpatient unit for more<br />
private family space, a larger commercial<br />
kitchen, the need for families to have<br />
separate cooking and dining space other<br />
than the commercial kitchen, and the<br />
desire to have our professional staff<br />
much closer to our patients and families<br />
throughout all hours of the day.<br />
for palliative care and hospice services<br />
will increase. According to census<br />
information, by 2050 the proportion of<br />
the U.S. population age 85 and over is<br />
projected to triple to almost 18 million,<br />
or 4.5% of the population (from under<br />
2% in 2012). Because of this growth,<br />
JACH is adding four more patient rooms,<br />
raising capacity from 16 to 20 beds.<br />
State Rep. Natalie Manley (D-Joliet)<br />
spearheaded legislation in spring of<br />
2018 to increase the capacity of all<br />
Illinois hospice inpatient units, which is<br />
governed by state laws. It quickly passed<br />
the House and Senate without opposition<br />
with the support of Sen. Jennifer Bertino-<br />
Tarrant (D) and was signed into law in<br />
August 2018.<br />
continued on next page...<br />
Aerial view of the proposed new addition to the Hospice<br />
Home Inpatient unit.<br />
The National Hospice and Palliative Care<br />
Organization states that hospice cares for<br />
over 1.65 million Americans every year.<br />
As the U.S. population ages, the need<br />
IL State Representative, Natalie Manley (D-Joliet) waved<br />
to guests at the JACH Ground breaking April 24, 2019.<br />
Real People Real Care Your Family
Change language