Local News
Loebsack honors 'Iowans Who serve'
OTTUMWA — During this season of giving, an elected official said he wanted to visit those who give all year long.
Congressman Dave Loebsack, the Democrat representing Iowa’s 2nd District, continued his “Highlighting Iowans Who Serve” tour by visiting the McCreery Cancer Center at Ottumwa Regional Health Center, the Ottumwa Good Samaritan Center and the Hospice House of Davis and Wapello Counties.
Hospice employees are ready to move into their new building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Ottumwa.
“This is an important part of health care that is often overlooked,” Loebsack told the Courier after his tour.
He said end-of-life care is something older Americans or the terminally ill may want a doctor’s advice on, and the original health care reform bill allowed Medicare payments for such a physician visit. But that subject was, he said, unfairly demonized by opponents as a system to decide who lives and dies.
“Families and patients [want] to make the best informed decisions about the end of their life,” Loebsack said. “I hope that [provision] will make it ... into the final bill.”
Executive Director Suzie Anderson of Hospice had just told Loebsack that making patients and families comfortable during a difficult time is a key function.
“That’s it: to provide good end-of-life care,” she said.
The new location’s last use was as a nursing home. The patient rooms the congressman toured were called “suites;” each was made from what had once been two resident rooms.
The first suite had a sitting area with sofa and fireplace, and a bedroom set off from the sitting room.
“It’s supposed to be homey,” Anderson told Loebsack.
The Hospice director said renovations to their new facility were basically complete, but they had to wait before moving in patients. Some of the regulators who must approve the building for occupancy “only make surprise inspections,” she said.
“I’m feeling pretty good that we’re going to pass,” she said as she showed off the library, a kitchen and a family room decorated with a Christmas tree.
She told Loebsack that Hospice was a non-profit entity owned by the community.
“I answer directly to the board [of directors],” she said.
“To find out half of this facility was paid for by community donations, that says a lot about Ottumwa,” Loebsack said. “This is the giving season. I wanted to find out: What are folks giving?”
Loebsack made Medicare reimbursement for Iowa a primary issue during his participation in the House debate on health care legislation. During his health care focused tour, he said, actually visiting the sites was important. As if on cue — and just after Anderson mentioned how vital volunteers were — a man carrying a wooden board walked down the other end of the hall.
“There’s one of our volunteers now,” said Anderson. “Volunteers like Jim are the backbone of Hospice.”
A retired John Deere employee, volunteer Jim Dellinger was “working” as the maintenance man. He and other supporters helped the contractor keep the costs down on the remodel, the director said.
Friday, he was putting finishing touches on a room.
But Dellinger said his favorite volunteer task is visiting patients in their homes. Hospice helps with more patients living at home than it does on an “in patient” basis at their facility.
By staying with those patients, Dellinger said, he allows their caregiver to get a break.
And it’s important for that person, often a spouse, he said, to get a little time off while someone they trust is sitting with their terminally ill loved one.
“They can go out to lunch with [family], just get out a little,” he said.
Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mnewman@ottumwacourier.com
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