Story Published: Apr 20, 2011 at 10:30 AM PDT
Story Updated: Apr 20, 2011 at 10:30 AM PDT
The check presented to St. Joe's Tuesday.
The Palliative Care unit at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center works to help patients and their families understand illness and accept the realities of their situation.
On Tuesday the Regence Foundation recognized St. Joe's with a $123,000 grant for their exceptional work.
Foundation Board Director and Regence BlueShield President Scott Kreiling said in a recent survey conducted by the Foundation, they found close to 75% of Americans don't understand what palliative care is.
"It tells us that our foundation is focused on the right area," said Kreiling. "The work that's being done by the hospitals like St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, in being out there and having those discussions."
St. Joe's Patient Care Services Vice President Kathleen Connerley said the Palliative Care unit formally started in 2008 and in that short time, has helped more than 200 patients and family members.
"When we started that work and really started to understand the potentials and we thought it was consistent with much of the work that we've done in the past with our vision and philosophy of trying to provide service from a very holistic perspective," said Connerley.
But nobody knows the benefits of palliative care more then the families. Gloria and Eric Heintz' son Ethan was in and out of the hospital before he passed away.
Gloria said the caring staff helped them grasp the reality of their son's illness.
"But what they did more than anything was teach us to be realistic about what we were looking at," said Gloria. "They did it with kindness, with a lot of firm talk, but reasonable logic amidst all the emotions. And we basically feel a great debt of gratitude."
Connerley said they can use the additional funds to further their work in the hospital and extend their services to the patient's home.
