During a public hearing earlier this week, PeaceHealth, owner of the lone existing hospice center in Clark County (Ray Hickey Hospice House), argued there isn’t enough demand for inpatient hospice care in Clark County to support CHHH’s project.
“The percent of patients requiring non-home based care, used to forecast need for inpatient hospice services, is highly inflated and is not supported by actual statistics and current trends,” stated PeaceHealth in an opposition paper to CHHH’s findings dated February 21, 2012.
During the hearing, Greg Pang, Community Home Health & Hospice CEO, said he rejected the notion that one hospice center will benefit at the expense of the other as a result of
CON approval.
“We’ve seen our agency grow by 500 percent in the past six years, and Southwest Hospice has grown by 112 percent at the same time according to the data they report to the state,” said Pang. “There is clearly room for multiple growing hospice providers in Clark County.”
The health department is expected to make a decision in late April.
