South Jersey's first: $15M freestanding inpatient hospice facility

Samaritan Healthcare & Hospice started work Thursday on what it says will be South Jersey’s first freestanding inpatient hospice facility.

The $15 million center is being built on Route 73 just south of Dutchtown Road in Voorhees, N.J.

The 30,000-square-foot facility will feature 18 private rooms, a palliative medicine suite, a meditation chapel, counseling rooms and a 98-seat community education center — all in a “serene wooded setting.” Each six-room wing will feature a country kitchen, dining room, family room and children’s alcove. Each room will have views of gardens.

“As our population ages, more people will need hospice care,” said Mary Ann Boccolini, Samaritan’s president and CEO. “When the time comes, most of us want to be home during our final days, surrounded by family and friends. But that wish cannot always be realized, especially for people with complex needs.”

Boccolini said The Samaritan Center at Voorhees will offer a “home away from home” for patients whose pain and symptoms require continually supervised care that is best provided in an inpatient setting.

“Patients and families will receive the same services that they would in a home setting from Samaritan staff, plus the more acute, 24-hour care, their pain and symptoms require,” she said.

The Samaritan Center at Voorhees is expected to open in late 2016.

The project will be funded in part from the proceeds of capital campaign Samaritan is conducting. The balance will come from the Marlton, N.J., nonprofit organization’s cash reserves and from financing.

Source: Philadelphia Business Journal