Innovations in End-of-Life Care
an international journal of leaders in end-of-life care

Hospice of the Bluegrass
Gretchen M. Brown, President/CEO
2312 Alexandria Drive
Lexington, Kentucky 40504
www.hospicebg.com/

Hospice of the Bluegrass (HOB) got its start in the late 1970s as a community-focused volunteer effort to help the terminally ill in Fayette County (KY) die with dignity. They have maintained that strong focus on community, expanding today to care for people at ten different sites in 23 counties across central, southeastern, and northern Kentucky. Its services are broad and provided through an interdisciplinary team approach that includes registered nurses, home care aides, social workers, chaplains, bereavement counselors, volunteers, and physicians, as well as the patient's own doctor. Its value to the community can be measured in the high number of referrals it receives from physicians (more than 2,800 referrals total in the year 2000, out of more than 2,900 patients cared for at HOB that same year).

Nationally, HOB is viewed as unique and a leader in the field of end-of-life care, based on the myriad services it provides to patients, their families, and the community. Regardless of location, HOB will care for any patient and does not turn away someone who is unable to pay. To help battle the rising cost of health care, HOB has merged with smaller hospices to centralize administrative costs while continuing to provide care from and for that community. They have established many distinctive offerings that root them to the community, among them: a 17-bed inpatient unit in a local hospital, a pediatric palliative care team offered in both urban and rural areas, an outpatient clinic for patients who are not yet appropriate for hospice care, a merger with the grassroots Cancer Support Network, a community center for grief education and counseling, community libraries and educational programs, and a partnership with a large African American church recognized as a major force in and for the minority community. To maintain its leading edge in the field, HOB routinely partners with the University of Kentucky and engages in research on end-of-life care. Even as the hospice grows and expands, HOB continues to remain a community-based organization, with care as its top priority.

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