Hospice is a pretty recent term that by definition is a program that provides medical and other care for terminally ill patients. However, the root is the Latin term "hostel" which means a shelter or lodging for travelers or the needy. Hospice was created to support the patient and their families as they seek care during the "end of life" experience. It's a program designed to ease the natural process of death for both the patient and their loved ones. At Zion's Way Home Health & Hospice, founders Carol Citte and Shirley Haslam believe that the "end of life" experience is a process, that it's not just about death. Carol says "Healing isn't just for the physical. There's the ethereal body; the physical and spiritual."

After working three years for a national hospice company, Carol and Shirley decided to provide higher levels of specialized, medical care along with alternative treatments to better serve patients and caregivers. "For me, hospice is really my love. I love hospice. I think that it's a healing art," Carol states. With Carol's background in marketing and public relations and Shirley's in management and nursing, they established Zion's Way Home Health & Hospice in 2005. Their team of highly trained professionals provides care in the home, at a nursing home, in the hospital, at other care facilities, or wherever the patient calls "home."

Shirley recounts that when her father was nearing his death, he wanted to go home. As a young nurse Shirley didn't know anything about hospice, and no one offered to allow them to take him home or to explain what hospice was. To this day, it haunts her that she was unable to take him home. She says, "It's fine for them to die in the hospital if that's necessary; and thank goodness we have the hospital and those places for those individuals who have that desire and wish, that's the wonderful thing about hospitals. With hospice, we allow them to be able to go home and pass away and make that journey and transition at home."

A hospice team consists of but is not limited to: the patient's personal physician, hospice medical director, case manager or nurse, social worker, certified nursing assistant, volunteers, spiritual case counselors, bereavement coordinator, and dietician.

One of the common misconceptions is that hospice is only available to those patients who are dying. The fact is, that the average patient has a life expectancy of six months when entering hospice. Carol maintains that "When you look at hospice a lot of people think, 'That's when people are going to die.' Actually, they're very much alive." Another misconception is that hospice is not covered by insurance and is only available to those who can pay. Quite the opposite. In fact, hospice is fully funded through the Medicare Part A benefit, for those with a six month or less life expectancy. The hospice benefit is also covered by Medicaid and most private insurance companies. Hospice admission is based on need, not on the ability to pay.

As the needs of the community have grown and shifted, so has Zion's Way Home Health & Hospice. In 2009, the business moved from a downtown location to a bigger facility to better accommodate the needs of their patients and families. Carol and Shirley have also helped pioneer alternative care into the hospice practice. This alternative care includes aroma therapy, reflexology, massage therapy, music therapy, art therapy, homeopathic, nutritional consultations, pet therapy, therapeutic touch and much more. Susannii Cooper, Director of Alternative and Complementary Care, calls herself a "professional healer." As a nurse and massage therapist, she finds it an "honor and a calling to go out to people passing away and give comfort." Leading a team of sound healers, massage therapists, and musicians, Susannii says that these "league of angels" intervene in times of stress, anxiety and pain when traditional medicines can't help. “We consider it a very sacred time. A time just as important in a human being's lifetime as birth. Death and birth are very much the same thing – in the circle of life, in the cycle. The alternative cares at Zion's Way is part of the vision to comfort people, to help their families, to use interventions (under doctor's orders), to help people in times of pain and anxieties, suffering and pain." Susannii makes it very clear that these alternative and complementary cares are nothing new, but part of ancient healing arts that help us reconnect with ourselves and each other. By using these arts, she says it's a "great opportunity to use our gifts to help one another. To calm one another. To soothe one another. To bring peace to one another."

(This article was originally published on January 29th in a special insert for the Spectrum and Daily News. Zion's Way Home Health & Hospice was given the 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year award by the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce located in St. George, Utah.)