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St. Francis Hospice in Honolulu, a part of St. Francis Healthcare System of Hawaii, began 22 years ago in a 50-squarefoot room. Today it is one of the world's premier hospice organizations, with a busy home care service and two freestanding hospice facilities. Its staff of more than 60 employees and 125 volunteers serve 1,000 patients and their family members annually. The program, Hawaii's only hospice accredited bv the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, attracts medical professionals from around the globe, many of whom credit St. Francis Hospice with teaching them to expand their efforts in end-of-life care in such faraway places as Japan and Korea.
While few physicians embraced the concept of the hospice when it began, hundreds of doctors and healthcare providers in the community now refer patients to the program. "Doctors are more willing now to take a proactive role in managing terminal patients' deaths and referring them to hospice," says Michael Warren, RTN, director of St. Francis Hospice. "Their patients' increased willingness to discuss their wishes for end-of-life care and to be involved in making those decisions, along with their families, has brought physicians closer to the hospice concept and inclusion as true members of the hospice team." All the hospice staff work tirelessly to convince people, through presentations and other means, that the terminal phase of illness is not...