Cottage in the Meadow, which provides inpatient hospice services in Yakima, will close this month as Tacoma-based MultiCare Health System plans to repurpose the building as a skilled nursing facility. The hospice center will cease operations on or before Aug. 21 as MultiCare pursues a certificate of need from the state to repurpose the facility as a skilled nursing facility, MultiCare communications specialist Marcus Perry said in an email.
Located at 1208 S. 48th Ave., Cottage opened as a hospice care facility in September 2012 after a 10-year community-based fundraising effort.
It was operated by then-Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital as part of its palliative services. MultiCare acquired Yakima Valley Memorial in January 2023, and Cottage in the Meadow as part of that. The hospital is now known as MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital.
"The current financial situation at Cottage in the Meadow is no longer sustainable," Perry wrote. "Changes in end-of-life care patient preferences and reimbursement practices have led to our resulting, ongoing operational losses for the past five years." The state Department of Health's certificate of need program requires certain health care providers to get state approval before building certain types of facilities, or offering new or expanded services.
"Pending Department of Health approval, Cottage in the Meadow will reopen as a skilled nursing facility specializing in short-term rehabilitation services, while also reserving beds for inpatient hospice care, later next year," Perry said. There are no plans to sell the building, Perry said. Though the number of Cottage staff members impacted wasn't immediately available, they "will be given opportunities to serve in other programs or fill vacancies within the hospital," he said.
A number of people also volunteer at Cottage in the Meadow. About 18 Cottage in the Meadow patients will be affected. "Patients will still receive hospice support through agreements with skilled nursing facilities, home hospice care or hospital care if they meet inpatient criteria," he said.
Hospice care focuses on the quality of life for people and their caregivers who are experiencing an advanced, life-limiting illness, according to medicare.gov . "This type of care is most often provided where patients live, whether it's at home, an assisted living facility, or a nursing home," the website says.
Cottage in the Meadow is the only structure devoted solely to hospice care in Yakima County and one of few in Central Washington. It opened in September 2012 after a capital campaign for construction funding led by the Memorial Foundation, the hospital's philanthropic arm. Following another capital campaign, Cottage in the Meadow added a $4.
5 million wing in 2017, expanding from 12 beds to the maximum 20 patient beds allowed in a hospice facility in Washington state. The facility has a home-like atmosphere for patients and their families. Its staff include hospice aides, chaplains, physicians, social workers and volunteers.
They offer pain and symptom management, answer questions and offer counseling. Though Yakima County has no other facility dedicated solely to hospice care, the county has three hospice providers certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services . They are MultiCare Yakima Memorial Home Health & Hospice (currently based at Cottage in the Meadow) and Astria Home Health and Hospice at 7 S.
10th Ave. in Yakima. There is also Heartlinks Hospice , a nonprofit organization that provides palliative care for patients in Benton and Yakima counties.
It has offices in Grandview, Richland, Yakima and Sunnyside. Laurie Jackson, chief executive officer of the Tri-Cities Chaplaincy , was deeply involved with Cottage in the Meadow for several years before she left the Yakima Valley in 2019 for roles in Bend, Ore. and her current role.
She has been CEO of the Chaplaincy for 2 1/2 years. Among other roles, Jackson was a hospital chaplain and senior director for Memorial's Compass Care program. Compass Care included home health services, palliative and hospice care, bereavement services and Cottage in the Meadow.
"It's just unfortunate," said Jackson, who first heard about the pending closure in late July from several people involved with Cottage in the Meadow. They were told it would be closed for a year, she said. The hospice house is among three or four that have closed in Washington state over the past year or so, Jackson said.
"Hospice houses lose money; that's why they're closing," she said. But "when you have a hospice house, you have the potential to get more philanthropic donations." They also save hospital dollars and free up space for other patients, she added.
Hospice patients will still need symptom management and respite care, among other services. Without a hospice house, patients must find other resources that could be less-equipped. "If you don't have a hospice house, that patient would still have to have symptoms managed.
Hospitals are overcrowded," Jackson said. Or hospice patients may go to a skilled nursing facility, but "in our entire region, they are so understaffed. There may be beds, but no staff to serve them.
" A report published in March 2023, "The Value of Hospice in Medicare," showed that patients' use of hospice care contributed to $3.5 billion in savings for Medicare in 2019, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization . In the last year of life, the total costs of care to Medicare for those who used hospice was 3.
1% lower than for beneficiaries who did not use hospice, the report said. Laurie Jackson, chief executive officer of the Tri-Cities Chaplaincy. (submitted photo) "Hospitals are, in my opinion .
.. focused on the big dollars.
Orthopedics, cancer, heart," Jackson said. "They're forgetting that though hospice isn't making a lot of money, they are saving an ocean of money." At the same time, hospice care provides "multiple benefits to patients, families and caregivers," the report said.
"At any length of stay, hospice care benefits patients, family members, and caregivers, including increased satisfaction and quality of life, improved pain control, reduced physical and emotional distress, and reduced prolonged grief and other emotional distress," it said..
