Tel: (9722) 584-4684; (9722) 584-4682
Fax: (9722) 581-4059

E mail: gassner@hadassah.org.il

The Ina and Jack Kay Center is a 14-bed nursing unit for patients with advanced terminal illness.   It opened in September 1986 in Hadassah’s Mount Scopus hospital , with a home-care service for up to 25 patients added three years later.  Usually full to capacity, the hospice has cared for more than 2,800 people in its 19 years.

Contact us:

Hospice Director – Ruth Gassner:

gassner@hadassah.org.il

Hospice physician -   Dr Daniel Azoulay :

adaniel@hadassah.org.il

Hospice Head Nurse -  Batya Ovadia :

batia@hadassah.org.il

Hospice social worker -  Malka Yehezkel:

malkay@hadassah.org.il

Patients.  The majority of patients in Hadassah’s hospice are victims of cancer.  Their average stay in the facility is two weeks.  Typical difficulties include severe respiratory distress, nausea and vomiting, acute anxiety, depression, disorientation and pain.  Most are confined to bed.

While the hospice takes patients of all faiths and nationalities, the majority of its inpatients are Jewish ― from veteran Israelis to Russian and Ethiopian newcomers.  Terminally ill Israeli Arabs are more usually cared for at home within their extended families, with hospice staff supporting them with home-care services.

Care.  Emphasis in the hospice is on total care of the patient and his or her family within warm and optimistic surroundings.  Embracing international hospice philosophy of Care rather than Cure, the priority is enabling dying patients to enjoy the best possible quality of life in the time they have left.  Hospice staff are thus equally attentive to the medical and non-medical needs of their patients, meeting them promptly and confidently. 

Medical needs are most often relief of nausea, weakness and pain (for which last all major opioids, other than heroin and marijuana which are illegal in Israel, are freely available). Non-medical needs include emotional support, dignity, tranquility and for patients to feel they remain people who matter.

Home-Care (Crown Fund).  The hospice’s home-care service was introduced in 1989 for terminal patients whose quality of life is best served by staying at home.  It cares for up to 25 patients at a time.  All receive daily visits from either a hospice physician, nurse or social worker, who are on call to them around the clock.  Together with each patient and family, hospice nurses draw up individual care-programs, usually comprising supportive and analgesic care with psychological and social support. 

Families.  Hospice staff extend to the families of dying patients the same attention, professionalism and compassion as they give their patients.  Support is given to children of the dying, to help youngsters both cope with the fact of a terminally ill parent and prepare for life after the loss of that parent.  Bereavement follow-up, which can last as long as a year, is integral to hospice policy, especially for families at risk and when children are involved.

Staff.  Hospice director Ruth Gassner heads a staff of 24 specialized nurses, two physicians, a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist and two social workers.  The social workers both coordinate supportive services for patient and family, and provide bereavement counseling.   Appointing a nurse rather than a physician to direct the hospice was a relatively new concept when the hospice opened, but one that has proven highly successful in a unit whose main orientation is nursing and palliative care.

Staff Support.  As important as their professional skills is the intense involvement of all hospice staff – from providing unpaid night-help to caring enough to buy a patient a birthday card.  This degree of involvement comes at a price.  In a job where death is ever-present, extra support is needed.  A Hadassah social worker consults regularly with hospice and home-care nurses, and provides a range of support, from discussion to psychodrama. 

Staff Training.  Nursing students at Hadassah rotate in the hospice as part of their curriculum.  While hospice training is not an independent subject on the Medical School curriculum, sixth-year students are assigned to the hospice for part of their oncology and geriatric training. The Hospice also offers one year training for social work students.

Research.  Active research is carried out in the hospice.  One current example is the effect of analgesic medication on patients with brain tumors and the degree to which such medication is helpful during the final phase before death. We also study the effect of giving oxygen to our patients.

The Place.  The hospice is housed in the renovated home of former Hadassah director-general Chaim Yassky, and has preserved the atmosphere of a private residence.   Its lounge is carpeted and curtained.  It has armchairs and a large fireplace, above which hangs a golden oil painting of Jerusalem, a gift from the artist, Anna Marcus.  Books line the shelves and a CD-player softly plays Bach.  From the terrace and beautiful garden the view stretches down to the Dead Sea.

Daily Life.  Meals are taken downstairs by those who can, often with visiting family or friends, and eaten with silverware from ceramic plates on tables covered with cloths.  There is unrestricted access to the kitchen for patients and their visitors alike, who come in and out to make their own tea or coffee and stack their used cups in the dishwasher.  The large refrigerator is filled with patients’ snacks or favorite meals from home, which can be heated in the hospice’s microwave.  Even in the more hospital-like rooms on the two upper floors, there is no sense of an institution.  Curtains frame windows, pictures hang on walls.  Patients get out of bed when they feel strong enough, or go to the linen closet to fetch clean pajamas.