Our June 13th speaker, RCFC Member Nate Lamkin, came to Fort Collins from Massachusetts, where he served as a senior management member for Care Dimensions, the largest non-profit hospice in that state.  He has been the President of Pathways Care since May of 2017.  He started with the history of hospice starting in medieval Europe, and the modern start in the UK in 1967.  The first US hospice was established in Connecticut in 1973. 

Today there are 4382 Medicare certified hospice facilities in the US.  Lamkin indicated the average length of stay is 71 days, with the median stay 24 days, indicating most hospice engagements are long, but at least half are very short - less than 24 days.  He went on to note what hospice is NOT: abandoning hope, either hastening or prolonging death, over medication, or only for those actively dying.  Nate noted that hospice's core focus is on quality of life until the end, focusing on comfort care and assisting the person spend their remaining days where they consider "home".