Before the end of this year, terminal patients too sick to leave Tallahassee Memorial Hospital will find Big Bend Hospice care on the third floor.
It will be the fruition of a new partnership that's providing a unique community service.
An almost universal fear is leaving this life in a sterile, impersonal hospital room full of life-prolonging machines.
The new First Commerce Center for Compassionate Care will provide eight patient rooms in a comfortable, home-like setting with accommodations for loved ones.
"To have something in the hospital when people are in such a fragile point, to stay in the hospital and receive that care they need." First Commerce CEO Cecilia Homison said.
The patient's loved ones will be welcome round-the-clock. And the credit union's million-dollar project kickoff donation conferred naming rights for the First Commerce Center for Compassionate Care. Although Big Bend Hospice Foundation president Dena Strickland said there's still a ways to go.
"We have already raised just over $4 million of our $5 million goal," Stickland said.
A goal they hope will be reached before the new in-hospital hospice center opens in November.
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