Hospice residence will stay until 2014

By Elizabeth Kim
Staff Writer
Posted: 03/29/2009 09:33:48 PM EDT

STAMFORD -- Despite discussions with its landlord, Stamford Hospital, about moving, the city's hospice residence will remain on Shelburne Road until the end of its lease in 2014, officials said last week.

The two parties reached an agreement Tuesday after rumors that Visiting Nurse & Hospice Care of Southwestern Connecticut might have to move the hospice residence at 30 Shelburne Road to make way for a hospital expansion that is expected to spread across 30 acres.

"Their renovation plans conflicted with the use of that building," said Mark Santagata, chairman of the VNHC board of directors. "But they very generously modified their plans that are under way and will accommodate us. The challenge that comes is what happens after that date."

There were conversations about moving the hospice residence in early 2010, when the hospital plans to begin construction on what is now a parking lot south of the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Cancer Center, Santagata said.

But the hospital agreed last week to temporarily build around the hospice, he said.

Stamford Hospital issued a statement that said, "With the current economic challenges facing nonprofit organizations, we understand that more time will be needed to develop a sustainable long-term solution for the hospice residence."

The Richard L. Rosenthal Hospice Residence opened on the hospital campus in 2000. The 12-bed facility provides a homelike environment during the last stages of life.

"There is really nothing else in the state for people who aren't able to die at home, but don't want to move into a hospital or nursing home," Santagata said.

-- Staff Writer Elizabeth Kim can be reached at
elizabeth.kim@scni.com or 964-2265.