Clearwater – Suncoast Hospice and Bon Secours St. Petersburg Health System have come together to form a specialized partnership concentrated on broadening the range of care the organizations can deliver together. The partnership is designed to anticipate and meet the needs of Bon Secours residents with advanced illnesses, and in some cases, accommodate earlier the patients who need and want hospice care. Plans include opening select services to the entire community in the near future. Details will be announced soon.
The two organizations share similar missions in which they are dedicated to providing exceptional care with compassion. While Suncoast Hospice teams already provide hospice care for patients at Bon Secours’ facilities, efforts will be made to create a deeper bond and new opportunities for their interdisciplinary teams to work in tandem.
An essential element of the new specialized program centers on palliative care, which helps patients attain physical comfort as well as emotional and spiritual well-being. Palliative care goals aim to make patients as comfortable as possible, enhance their quality of life and improve the support for their families. At the forefront of this programming, the united interdisciplinary team places particular emphasis on resolving pain and other symptoms such as agitation or restlessness in addition to addressing emotional & spiritual concerns and nutritional problems.
Karen Reich, chief executive officer of Bon Secours St. Petersburg Health System, said: “Through this new, specialized partnership with Suncoast Hospice, we are able to expand beyond our traditional services to surround our patients, residents and their families in an atmosphere of care and support that is entirely directed by their own choices. The Sisters of Bon Secours who founded our ministry nearly 200 years ago were inspired to alleviate the suffering felt by the poor and the dying, and we continue to live out their mission today. True to our heritage, the success of this partnership is fundamentally important to who we are as an organization, and it will enhance the care and services that we are able to offer.”
Noting the unmistakable synergy of the two organizations, Rafael J. Sciullo, president and CEO of Suncoast Hospice and its Family of Programs, said, “We are blending the expertise and compassionate hearts of our care teams knowing that together they will be dedicated to meeting the needs of our mutual patients and their families. If we can ease the journey and bring comfort to those we serve, then we will have accomplished our goals.”
Established in 1977, Suncoast Hospice is a not-for-profit, community-based organization. Suncoast Hospice and its family of programs provide expertise, care and support for thousands of area residents with hospice care, inpatient care centers, palliative home health, AIDS/HIV services, children’s programs, caregiver training and support, advance care planning, Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (Suncoast PACE) and more.
Bon Secours St. Petersburg Health System is a non-profit, Catholic healthcare system owned and operated by Bon Secours Health System, Inc., which was founded by the Sisters of Bon Secours. Named for ‘good help’ in French, the Sisters of Bon Secours guided this ministry for nearly two centuries with the mission to simply ‘provide good help to those in need, especially the poor and dying’. In the Tampa Bay area, this mission is concentrated on enlivening the independence of seniors through the clinical expertise and coordination of care outside of the hospital environment. Bon Secours St. Petersburg touches the lives of seniors and their families through the Bon Secours Home Care Services, assisted living at Bon Secours Place, Bon Secours Maria Manor Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, and the Healthy Community Initiative. To learn more about our distinctive services, please visit www.bonsecoursstpete.org.