Staff and supporters of Statesboro’s Ogeechee Area Hospice assembled on a lawn behind the health care facility Thursday to celebrate the realization of a dream.
    The group gathered to break ground on a $2.35 million building expansion to the non-profit hospice.
    The 16-room, 1,505 square feet addition will place the inpatient care facility in elite company and, most importantly, dramatically increase its ability to care for the area’s terminally ill citizens, according to Nancy Bryant, Executive Director of the Ogeechee Area Hospice.
    “We are so excited,” said Bryant. “We are the second hospice in the state of Georgia to have a designated hospice residential wing. This is going to make a huge impact for the citizens in our service region. We will give them another care setting that is very home-like, peaceful and features skilled caregivers.”
    Upon completion of the year-long project, the inpatient center will have the ability to house up to 25 individuals — more than doubling its current capacity — and assist them for extended periods of time.
    Currently, only persons suffering acute symptoms, facing end-of-life-issues, are admitted into the treatment facility.
    “Right now we care for most of our patients at home, and we have 12 inpatient beds for acute care needs,” said Bryant. “This 13-bed residential unit will be for Hospice patients that don’t have those immediate, acute care needs but have a home environment that is no longer safe for them to live in or without a caregiver.”
    Future patients, who can no longer live alone, could be cared for at the Hospice for weeks and months, she said.
    The expansion will fill an adjoining property deeded to the Hospice by Bulloch County Commissioners.
    “We couldn’t think of a more appropriate use for this property,” said Garrett Nevil,
    Chairman of the Bulloch County Board of Commissioners. “It means so much to have the Ogeechee Area Hospice as a part of our community.”
    “We are very pleased and excited that we have finally come to this point in time,” he said. “We are looking forward to the expansion, and to the new services the Hospice will be able to provide to our community.”
    According to Dick Mellett, vice president of the Board of Directors for the hospice, the building design has been completed and construction is expected to begin during the first week in September.
    Statesboro-based Pope Construction Company has been selected as the primary contractor.
    The new facility is hoped to be opened in the fall next year, he said.
    The residential unit is estimated to serve approximately 200 people each year when opened.
   
    Jeff Harrison can be reached at (912) 489-9454.