Published: June 12, 2009 12:22 am      

New hospice is place for patients, families

SOMERSET — Less than four years after Harold W. Wheeler lost his battle with cancer, his wife’s dream of a home-like setting with care for terminally ill patients has become a reality.

“We wanted it to be like Somerset County,” Joan Wheeler said Thursday at the dedication of In Touch Hospice House. “We wanted it to be homey.”

The Wheeler family donated all the funding for the 8,000-square-foot building, which has a maximum capacity of 10 beds, Somerset Hospital President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Farrell said.

“I have never met kinder, more charitable people anywhere,” Farrell said. “They truly care about the community of Somerset County and do many, many things to support the community.”

Harold Wheeler was a co-founder of Wheeler Bros. Inc. of Somerset – one of the largest suppliers of auto parts to the Department of Defense and the Postal Service.

His struggle with cancer included home care through Somerset Hospital’s In Touch Hospice department, founded in 1978 as one of the state’s first hospice programs.

The new hospice house provides an additional dimension.

“The thing that’s nice about this hospice house is the families can be here 24 hours a day,” Joan Wheeler said.

“They can cook here. They can stay in the room. They have their own environment.”

The house is not a long-term care facility, Director Beverly Penrod stressed.

“Patients come in when their symptoms are out of control, when there is a crisis in the home, or when death is imminent and the family does not have the facilities it needs,” Penrod said. “It is an acute situation. Once we get symptoms taken care of and they are stable, we send them back home.”

The average stay in a hospice facility is four to five days.

In addition to private rooms, the new hospice house has a living room area with fireplace, eat-in kitchen, chapel and sunporch.

A memorial sculpture donated by an artist, Dave Weimer of Somerset, adorns the front lawn.

It is located off North Center Avenue, adjacent to Children’s Aid Home Programs of Somerset County Inc.