Willson Hospice House, the only hospice care facility of its kind in Southwest Georgia, opened its doors to the public May 23.

The 39,000-square-foot Hospice House is the new home for Albany Community Hospice, an organization that provides palliative care to patients in Southwest Georgia with limited life expectancy.

Hospice focuses on end-of-life as a normal part of the process of living and provides special emphasis on maintaining quality of remaining life for terminal patients and their families. The new facility at 320 Foundation Lane provides patients and their families a peaceful, home-like setting where personal dignity and quality of life are emphasized.

"The opening of the Willson Hospice House will allow Albany Community Hospice to provide better care to our patients,"  said Director Patty Woodall. "The patient and family will receive care in a setting that specializes in end of life care, a beautiful setting dedicated to providing support to the patient and family."

The $13 million undertaking includes a total of 18 rooms with bay windows, French doors that allow beds to be easily rolled outdoors, and walking trails and respite sites for patients, visitors and staff to enjoy.

On one side of the building, the inpatient care program will take place in pods featuring six rooms each. On the other side of the new facility, the home care program for patients who are stabilized and able to return home will be operated from an administration area.

The hospice team, made up of board certified physicians, registered nurses, social workers, home health aides, chaplains, bereavement counselors and volunteers, is moving to the new location, which includes offices, a conference room, computer work stations and an employee break room.

The design of the building, developed on only 12 of the nearly 210 acres, gives much access to the outdoors, promoting Willson Hospice's emphasis on providing a calm and peaceful setting for patients and family members. The wood-framed building, designed in a Frank Lloyd Wright-esque fashion, features lots of glass to open views to the landscape and outlying gardens, creating a tranquil, quiet environment to help relieve stress for patients who are dealing with end-of-life issues and their families.

Willson Hospice House has also designated special areas for patients and families to help them feel at home, including a family kitchen where families can cook and eat together, a sunroom, a quiet room, a playroom for children, a family laundry area and two non-denominational chapels.

The new inpatient facility, built by Brasfield & Gorrie, LLC, was built in a way to target Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) certification. The purpose of LEED is to protect and enhance the construction site's natural resources from beginning of construction throughout the lifetime of the property.

The Willson Hospice House is one of many Phoebe green initiatives. "This hospice facility enables us to be environmentally and socially responsible and assure our community that the projects we undertake are healthy and sustainable for the environment while always improving the quality of life for those in our community,"  said John Fischer, senior vice president of
facilities and construction.

The measures for LEED certification also take into account factors that impact employee and public behaviors such as driving fuel-efficient vehicles or bicycling to work. Staff will have places of respite and showers available if they choose to run or bicycle to work, and patient visitors and community members can enjoy the walking trails and many educational opportunities established throughout the Wilson Hospice House site.

"In addition to being water and energy efficient, patients, staff and visitors will be able to see, touch and feel the benefits of a LEED certified building from day to day,"  said David Smith, KLMK Group program manager.

Phoebe is also targeting certification as an Audubon Silver Certified Sanctuary for The Willson Hospice House. This certification will not only ensure the building is designed to achieve both economic and environmental objectives, but also that sustainable resource management practices are applied in the long-term stewardship of the property.

The building was structured in a way that minimizes the human footprint on nature caused by construction and also promotes biodiversity. The Willson Hospice House provides patients and visitors with additional places of respite throughout the site, such as an outdoor chapel, serenity gardens, a walking trail, nature observation points, healing gardens, nature boardwalks and chapel gardens.