Hospice
Dignity in life’s final journey.
Supportive services focused on comfort and peace.
In your home
Most hospice care is given at home. Facing a life-limiting illness is difficult and has many challenges for both the individual and for the family. St. Luke’s Hospice brings a team of experts to help you. The team is comprised of physicians, registered nurses, social workers, chaplains, hospice aides and volunteers to assist you and support your family through your journey.
We focus on meeting the needs and goals of you and your family. Our support includes pain reduction, symptom control, as well as emotional, social, and spiritual care. To ensure your best quality of life, our staff members use their expertise to help answer questions, solve problems or issues, offer guidance and provide direction.
Visits are scheduled in advance by the team members and will happen as often as established in the hospice plan of care. Questions and problems can be assessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by phone and a nurse is always available for emergency visits. If live-in services are needed, our team will work with you to identify private-duty resources.
In your nursing home or assisted living facility
We provide care wherever you call home. This includes nursing homes, skilled facilities and assisted living facilities in our service area. Should you live in a facility, you and your family will receive the same level of service as those patients in private homes.
St. Luke’s Hospice has a long history of working with the facility staff from area nursing homes, skilled, and assisted living facilities to provide the additional assistance and support of extraordinary end-of-life care. The St. Luke’s Hospice team of experts will regularly communicate with you to ensure your needs are met. A family member or facility worker can simply contact the St. Luke’s Hospice Intake Department and a hospice liaison will assist you to collect all the information necessary to initiate hospice care.
In St. Luke’s Hospice Home
Our Hospice House, located in Lower Saucon Township, is the only free-standing inpatient facility in the Lehigh Valley. When pain and symptoms become too acute for home hospice care, the Hospice House is available to provide the highest level of acute care. General inpatient care is provided by registered nurses.
This inpatient facility surrounded by beautiful trees and flowering shrubs, provides you and your family extraordinary comfort. The rooms are warm and bright with beautiful French doors opening onto a private patio. Visitors of all ages can visit loved ones anytime and may stay overnight. The Hospice House interdisciplinary team works with each patient and family to meet their physical, emotional, social, spiritual and informational needs and goals of care. Complementary services such as aromatherapy, massage therapy, music, Reiki, Golden Rooms and pet therapy support the patient’s quality of life. Volunteers provide conversation and companionship and offer a compassionate presence for the patient and family members.
The Hospice House is licensed by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and nationally accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Health Care.
Your insurance most likely covers the cost of hospice care, medical equipment, supplies and medications that are directly related to the hospice diagnosis.
Hospice patients are cared for by a team of highly qualified professionals. Our collaborative approach to caring ensures a dignified end-of- life experience for you and your family.
The Hospice Interdisciplinary team includes...
- Hospice Physicians
- Registered Nurses
- Medical Social Workers
- Chaplains
- Hospice Aides
- Volunteers
- Your Own Physician
Most of our nurses and many of the other health care professionals on the team have special training or certification in hospice and palliative care.
Hospice is committed to nurturing the body, mind and spirit. These noninvasive, holistic practices do not replace the medical, social or spiritual care of the hospice team. Rather, they work with the total care of the hospice team to promote comfort and wholeness for you and your family.
If you are interested in any of these options, please discuss with your Hospice team.
Aromatherapy
A health care professional, certified through an accredited aromatherapy program*, uses essential oils to promote wellbeing, balance and harmony of the human body, mind, emotions and spirit. Aromatherapy may be used to decrease distress and discomfort, including pain, anxiety, shortness of breath and nausea. By reducing your stress and supporting your cultural, spiritual and emotional needs, it improves quality of life for you and your family.
* Per the regulations outlined by the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy
Golden Rooms
Massage
Peaceful Moments
St. Luke’s Hospice can help determine if it’s the right time for hospice care. Don’t hesitate to call, 484-526-1100, for an evaluation. Our nurse liaisons will come to your home, a hospital, and/or facility to speak to you and your family about hospice services and eligibility requirements. There is no cost or commitment to elect hospice, just information and education.
Sometimes physicians mention hospice services, but not always. It is important that you and your family understand the benefits of curative versus comfort care, and that you and your doctor share the same goals for maintaining quality of life.
Some signs that you may be ready for hospice are:
- An increase in pain, nausea, breathing distress or other symptoms
- Repeated hospitalizations or trips to the emergency room
- Failure to "bounce back" after medical set-backs occur
- Increasing assistance needed for walking, eating, bathing, dressing and/or going to the toilet
- Decreasing alertness, emotionally withdrawn, sleeping more or having increased difficulty with comprehension.
- A significant loss of weight and decreasing appetite
Some signs that your family and/or caregiver would benefit from hospice care:
- Your caregiver is physically and/or emotionally exhausted from caring for their loved one
- Your family is feeling isolated because of care-giving demands or the uncertainties they feel about your future
- Your family members appear to need emotional support to cope with the impending death
- Your caregiver is overwhelmed by physical, financial, emotional and spiritual concerns arising because of the illness.
St. Luke’s Hospice welcomes the opportunity to provide information about end-of-life care whether or not you and your family are receiving services at the time of the call. Even if someone doesn’t think it’s time, call us for information at 484-526-1100. No physician referral is needed to call.
If after speaking with your doctor you decide to pursue a different course of treatment, you may always stop hospice care. St. Luke’s Hospice can assist in that transition.
Community Education
Speakers are provided by St. Luke’s Hospice upon request from community groups or referral sources to provide information and targeted education on topics that may include:
- Advanced Care Planning and Five Wishes
- Hospice Philosophy of Care/Hospice 101
- Grief and Loss
- Hospice Eligibility Criteria and Scope of Services
- Pain and Symptom Management
- Caregiver Support and Education
- Cultural Attitudes About Death and Bereavement
Hospice family stories
These personal narratives highlight the profound impact of our dedicated care in moments of vulnerability and grace.
Married just shy of forty years, Bruce and Carol Keene enjoyed island vacations, facetiming with their grandkids and spending time at the Jersey Shore. In addition to her passion for her long career in training and development and talent acquisition, Carol loved the water. For years the Keene’s had an above-ground pool in their backyard, but six years ago they upgraded to an inground pool – much to the chagrin of their two adult children. Says Bruce, “For Carol, the pool was “it”!”
Last year Carol was receiving therapy for nagging back pain, but it wasn’t helping. One morning in May 2021 Carol woke to unbearable pain and she and Bruce headed to St. Luke’s Allentown Campus where, following a CT scan, a large uterine tumor was discovered. A biopsy revealed Leiomyosarcoma, a rare type of cancer that begins in smooth muscle tissue, which had already spread to Carol’s lungs and vertebrae. Radiation and the first round of chemotherapy were unsuccessful, so four treatments of a different chemotherapy were prescribed. In December, after the third treatment, Carol’s health was declining so the decision was made to stop treatment and start hospice care.
Hospice Case Manager Dana came to their Orefield home and explained hospice to Bruce and Carol, what to expect and answered all of their questions. Dana helped Carol manage her pain, while Shelby and other aids assisted Carol with bathing, changing her clothes, trimming her nails and other basic hygiene. “Shelby rubbed lotion on Carol’s back and legs and Carol really enjoyed all of their company and was grateful for their care,” says Bruce.
Ironically, during this time a young family moved into the Keene’s small neighborhood, just a few doors down from Bruce and Carol. Seeing the young mother outside one day, Bruce noticed she was wearing St. Luke’s scrubs and learned she was a hospice nurse. Although Emily wasn’t officially part of Carol’s care team, she offered her assistance and routinely texted or stopped by to check on Carol and Bruce. In early January when Carol’s breathing became labored, Bruce called Emily who quickly came to the house, called the case manager and stayed with him as Carol passed away.
Bruce was against home hospice care at first. “I was too emotional and didn’t think I could handle Carol being at home,” he admits. But he is grateful that she was and for the care provided by St. Luke’s Hospice. Following Carol’s death Bruce appreciated the follow-up from Carol’s care team and had a few sessions with a hospice grief counselor. “The whole hospice organization is caring and compassionate. They do what they say they are going to do and I am grateful they were here for us.”
Last year, in the midst of a devastating stretch, Susan Breininger and her family received an amazing gift from St. Luke’s Hospice House: They got Norma back.
Norma, mother of Susan and her four siblings and proud grandmother of nine, was suffering from multiple myeloma. Over the six months since her diagnosis in May 2016, the pain associated with the disease and the exhausting cycles of treatment and testing had changed her from a loving, caring person into someone she had never been before.
“Up until then, my Mom, had been this incredibly giving, compassionate, strong person her whole life,” Susan recalls. “She had changed and became someone who picked on little things and didn't let a little grudge go. She would be the first to tell a doctor that she wasn't happy with something. We would sit there and listen to her, and feel bad for the person she was talking to. That wasn't her; it was her pain.”
Norma Breininger was a resident of New Tripoli and the wife of Donald Breininger. In addition to her roles of wife and mother, she had many other interests and responsibilities.
“She was so many things to so many different people, yet it was all based on the same thing: She was just an incredible giver,” Susan says. “Her life was about giving.”
She recalls friends coming over as children and, later, others who came to visit from college. They all became part of Norma's family. Norma was an outstanding and prolific baker—known especially for her raised potato cakes, chocolate cakes and shoofly pies—who would donate her goods to local organizations like the Weisenberg Lutheran Church and the Weisenberg/Lowhill Township Historical Society to fuel bake sales.
In retirement, Norma had an active social life and enjoyed the Breininger’s family vacations in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. But, in her late 70s, Norma started to suffer what she thought were the standard aches and pain associated with advancing age.
However, the symptoms persisted. Norma became very weak and constantly tired, admitting to discomfort she had never complained about before. This was very unusual as Norma was a woman who had paid very little attention to pain throughout her life. Following open-heart surgery, she was back on her feet in just two days. She also had both knees replaced on the same day “to get it over with at one time” and breezed through her rehabilitation regimen. Through it all, Norma was a model patient, doing what her doctors said to recover quickly and get back to doing the things she loved. “In hindsight, she probably had it for a long time, but Mom never complained about anything…ever,” Susan says. “Any symptoms she might have had, she just attributed to her getting older and kept on going. My Mom was one tough woman. She took care of anyone who needed help, and never let anything keep her down.”
But this was different and it was serious. Norma was admitted to the hospital when her kidney function tests came back showing she was in acute kidney failure. It took several days until the doctors were able to narrow down the possible cause to multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow. “Her cancer diagnosis was a shock,” Susan says. “We all thought, ‘Not our Mom. She just doesn't get sick.’ But when we really thought back to things she'd been saying for months, we could see more signs that pointed to her diagnosis and subsequent deterioration.”
Norma was in and out of the hospital for pain control. During that six-month stretch, her ramped-up care that included dialysis, chemotherapy and blood transfusions, and her declining health took its toll on Norma and her family. She was in pain and was miserable, and her quality of life had worsened along with her health.
“I had made arrangements to talk with my siblings about having a conversation with Mom about what she really wanted the rest of her life to look like,” Susan recalls. “The day before that meeting was supposed to take place, she called and was crying and said she doesn't want to do this anymore.”
Susan made the hours-long drive from her home in Maryland to speak with Norma face-to-face.
“She had made up her mind to go to hospice,” Susan recalls. “She said she knew where she was going and knew who her maker was. She was at peace with her decision, but she was worried about disappointing us and us thinking she was giving up. However, it was a relief for us and is another example of my Mom doing something so that we wouldn't have to.” Norma was only at St. Luke’s Hospice House for one week before she died at age 77 one day before Thanksgiving in 2016. But, according to Susan, it was a glorious final week. Once the approach to Norma’s disease shifted from halting its advance and treating her symptoms in a medical setting to making her comfortable at St. Luke’s Hospice House, Norma became Norma again.
“All of a sudden, we got her back,” Susan says. “You could see the transition of her spirit. She was smiling and laughing, and people would come in to visit and she was telling them how happy she was. That whole last week in hospice was just such an incredible experience. It was what we all needed.”
The staff at Hospice House made the process easy.
“The hospice and palliative care teams at St. Luke's were fantastic,” Susan says. “They didn't hesitate to help. They treated us as though my Mom was their favorite patient. We felt we were part of their family, and we tested them.” Family members stayed around the clock with Norma, and during the week that Norma was at Hospice House, 126 people visited her.
“The best thing that the staff of Hospice House did for us was that they let us be a family,” Susan says. “We were completely committed to the little life that she had left. If there were 27 people there at one time, which there were, they accommodated us and, for example, encouraged us to use the kitchen area.”
Norma’s family made the most of her precious time remaining. As Norma was a dedicated Penn State football fan, her family threw a well-attended party complete with tailgate favorites like soup, hot dogs and chili at Hospice House to watch a Nittany Lion game with Norma.
“It was like we were at home because that's what we would have done had Mom been healthy,” Susan points out. Every day, Norma’s grandchildren lined up in her room and sang “Jesus Loves Me” and “You Are My Sunshine” as she beamed. So proud was Norma that she would put on her call bell to have the Hospice House staff join the audience. On the last night that Norma was relatively conscious, the entire family—27 strong—sat in her room talking, telling stories, singing, laughing and playing jokes on each other. Susan and her family did not know what to expect from St. Luke’s Hospice. The experience was, she found out, a celebration of Norma and an amazing way to honor the life and family of an amazing woman.
“There is no doubt in my mind that we would make the exact same decision, knowing what we do now,” Susan said. “I would want it for myself so my family wouldn’t have to worry about the details and could just be with me. My Mom hadn’t been that happy in six months. The fact that St. Luke’s Hospice gave us the opportunity to treat my Mom as though every minute of her life mattered wasn’t just a gift to my Mom, it was a gift to all of us.”
Phillip Rader, “Pip” to his friends, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in 1994. For years his wife Betty tirelessly took care of him herself. Eventually, Pip’s mind began to deteriorate and dementia set in. “There were times when he didn’t remember who I was. After 45 years of marriage, that was so difficult to witness,” said Betty. Despite ongoing medical intervention, Pip – like most patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease – experienced a steady decline. Determined to care for her husband at home, Betty enlisted the help of a certified nursing assistant who introduced her to the idea of hospice care. Betty, like so many, thought that hospice care was only for terminally ill cancer patients. What she learned was that hospice supports all terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months of life. “I was annoyed with myself that I had such difficulty taking care of Pip,” admits Betty. “His disease was very demanding, both physically and emotionally. I was confined to the house, but with the hospice team I had someone to share the load with.”
With his disease in its final stages, Pip was transferred to Mahoning Valley Convalescent Home. Although no longer living in his house, hospice caregivers continued to see Pip several times a week. “They checked on him, they checked on me, they were always concerned about our care. I couldn’t have felt more blessed to be able to spend the last moments with Pip without the worry of caring for his physical needs,” says Betty. Nineteen days after being admitted to the nursing home, Pip peacefully succumbed to his disease.
The staff of St. Luke’s Hospice House is accustomed to providing little acts of kindness to make their patients’ last days brighter, but arranging a penguin visit was a first. The lively little black-and-white, web-footed callers succeeded in their mission to bring smiles to the faces of 38-year-old patient Ann Marie Carl and her family.
Several months earlier, Ann Marie Carl, an animal lover, was excited for an upcoming trip to Sea World in Florida with her husband Dennis. But then, she got a cough that wouldn’t go away. She went to her physician, who ordered a blood test. After several additional tests, she was diagnosed with liver cancer.
“She was given three and a half months last fall, but she lasted until April,” Dennis says of his wife of 11 years. On April 22, during the last days of her life, she moved to the St. Luke’s Hospice House in Bethlehem.
Hearing of the cancelled trip, the Hospice staff decided that if Ann Marie couldn’t go to Sea World, they would bring Sea World to her, says Hospice Patient Care Manager Judy Scott.
“They decorated her room with blue streamers, a sun and an inflated dolphin,” she said. “I even saw Ann Marie and a nurse tossing a beach ball.” But that wasn’t good enough. So, knowing that the Lehigh Valley Zoo in Schnecksville had penguins, they made a few calls.
“We were more than happy to accommodate their request to have the penguins visit Ann Marie,” said Cherlyn R. Vatalaro, Director of Conservation Education, Lehigh Valley Zoo. The zoo used dog kennels to transport the penguins, which are called black-footed or African penguins. About two feet tall, the penguins are trained to come out of the kennels and onto tables, Cherlyn says. In addition to Ann Marie and Dennis, Ann Marie’s mother, sister and two small nephews shared the penguin visit.
“It was a special day,” Judy says. “The family was so gracious. There were other children in the building and Dennis encouraged them to come in and see the penguins.”
“Ann Marie welcomed the children,” Dennis says. “She worked in daycare most of her life and loved children.”
Sadly, Ann Marie passed away two days later. Although nothing will replace the loss Dennis feels, he is grateful for the support he received from Hospice, he said adding, they continue to call him every now and then.
“They did everything they could to comfort my wife and me,” he says.
After a long battle with cancer, Marci’s parents brought her to Hospice House. Everything that could be done for Marci had been done. A family friend, however, could not stop thinking about how much Marci loved her horse, Berri, and asked the Hospice House staff is she could bring Berri to visit Marci. Although it was an unusual request, the staff agreed. On a cold March afternoon, a horse trailer pulled up to trailer Hospice House and Berri was led to the patio outside Marci’s room. Staff moved Marci, covered in a mound of beautiful quilts, to the French doors to see her beloved horse. With the windows open and the wind blowing into the room, Marci opened her eyes and with her mother’s help, lifted her hand to touch Berri and said goodbye. Marci died peacefully later that day. Thanks to the loving care of the Hospice House staff, Marci was able to say goodbye to all of her loved ones, including her beautiful Arabian horse, Berri.