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Nancy Gannon watched her mother and, later, her friend spend their final days dying on a hospital bed. Their deaths nearly 17 years ago prompted Gannon to learn more about hospice care and educate others about it.

"You're very isolated in a hospital," said Gannon, a Pinetree Road resident who now serves on the board of Family Hospice and Palliative Care in Mt. Lebanon. "I knew there had to be a better way to spend your final days."

The hospice, which served 2,500 terminally ill patients last year at their homes, hospitals or nursing homes, is establishing a new inpatient facility in Mt. Lebanon.

Patients are expected to be admitted to the Center for Compassionate Care by summer 2006, Gannon said. The facility will be located across the street from Jefferson Elementary School in the former Ward Home for Children on Moffett Street.

"We're always thinking about how we are going to end up toward the end of our lives," Gannon said. "I know that I want to be surrounded by loved ones in a pleasant environment. I don't want to die on a hospital bed."

The 42,000-square-foot, three-story building will house a 12- to 14-patient hospice unit, administrative offices and facilities to accommodate community and professional educational seminars and conferences. It includes an auditorium and 6,000-square-foot gymnasium.

Family Hospice officials recently met with municipal zoning officials and are working toward zoning approval. They don't anticipate any problems.

Mt. Lebanon Recreation Department is using the gymnasium in the Ward Home for its youth basketball programs. Family Hospice officials hope to work out an arrangement so the programs can continue at the gymnasium.

A hospice inpatient unit provides care for a limited time period to a small number of patients who can no longer remain at home or in other settings.

The new hospice unit will include a kitchen and dining room for patients and families, as well as overnight accommodations for family members. There also will be a family gathering room and a meditation chapel for quiet contemplation.

"The center's educational component will be a unique asset for the South Hills and Pittsburgh community," said spokeswoman Michelle Dreyfuss. "Being in a residential neighborhood reinforces the basic hospice philosophy that hospice is about living, not about dying. It is about being comfortable, surrounded by loved ones and living each day as fully as possible."

Renovation of the former Ward Home will begin as funding becomes available, said Rafael Sciullo, president and chief executive officer of Family Hospice and Palliative Care.

Administrative and clinical staff will move into the new center July 1, Sciullo said.

"This will increase the scope of care we will provide," he said. "Our goal is to reinforce a home-like environment."

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