With its massive stone fireplace, comfortable chairs and lofted ceiling, the great room of the Rapid City Regional Hospital Auxiliary Hospice House feels more like a mountain lodge than a gathering place for families of terminally ill patients.

That's exactly the point.

"We moved (mom) in here about 10:30 Friday morning, and it's just been wonderful," said Judy Moody of Winner. "We can just make ourselves at home. The coffee pot's always on."

Moody's mother, Doris Daum of Murdo, has terminal ovarian cancer. Since Friday, her family has gathered at the Hospice House to spend time with her. Some have spent the night in Daum's room. All have spent hours at the facility off Elk Street in Rapid City.

Moody's daughter, Beth Cook of Lingle, Wyo., and Cook's children, who are 9, 8, 6 and 4, are among them.

"It's made it a lot simpler," Cook said. At Hospice House, the children have been able to watch movies, play the piano and make Christmas ornaments for their great-grandmother instead of sitting in a hospital or nursing-home waiting room.

On Monday, the children helped Rapid City Regional Hospital Auxiliary members decorate trees for patients' rooms.

Since Hospice House opened Sept. 20, it has been making the last days of life more comfortable both for patients and for their families. Patient rooms feature cherry-wood furniture, handmade patchwork quilts, and glass doors that open onto private patios or decks.

Special features such as a side-entry spa bath and state-of-the-art patient beds make good medical sense, "but this is about comfort," said Barbara Vargo, volunteer coordinator for Rapid City Regional Hospital. "Everything we do should be about comfort."

Families are welcome to use the facility's small library, its chapel/meditation room, its family room and shower, and its full kitchen.

"We had, I think, three Thanksgiving dinners here," Vargo said. Patient meals come from the hospital, which is just visible beyond a group of pine trees.

The hospital has provided hospice services in private homes and nursing homes for 23 years and continues to do so, Vargo said. Hospice nurses make regular visits to patients, helping with things like pain management. They're on-call to families 24 hours a day. Chaplains, social workers and others also provide hospice services.

On average, hospital staff cares for 48 hospice patients each day, Vargo said.

Until now, terminal patients needing more medical care spent their last days in hospitals or nursing homes (some area hospitals do have hospice rooms). Hospice House lets those patients spend that time in a place that feels, at least a little bit, more like home.

There's a waiting list for the home's 12 rooms.

Hospice House serves three types of patients:

1. Terminally ill patients who require hospitalization are admitted first.

2. Residential patients are terminally ill people who need care and support but might not have a relative who can care for them.

3. Respite-care patients are those who are allowed to stay up to five days because caregivers need a break from their responsibilities caring for a terminally ill person at home.

So far, Hospice House stays have ranged from two hours to 45 days, Vargo said.

Judy Moody didn't know the place existed until their mother took a turn for the worse last week. It's been a godsend, she said.

"When you're hurting … it helps just so much to have people make us feel welcome," she said, adding that her mother feels good about being there. "I think the people that have worked here have been the biggest plus, making mom feel like she's important."

For Daum's family, the timing of Hospice House's opening couldn't have been better.

"For us to just come here and be together, it's just been good," Moody said.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com

To learn moreFor more information on Hospice House or to volunteer, call 719-7710.