Snow, frigid temperatures and blowing winds have been all too familiar throughout what seems to be a never-ending winter. While constantly shoveling snow or scraping icy car windows might seem like a nuisance to most of us, the bad weather unfortunately has been more than a minor inconvenience to many residents throughout western Pennsylvania.

The Kane Regional Center in McKeesport recently helped Harmony Hospice temporarily move four residents from a personal care home into the Kane Center after the Feb. 5 blizzard knocked out electrical power throughout the region. Three of the women were more than 90 years old.

“One of the personal care homes we work with had a power outage in part of their building,” explained Doug Suttner, executive director of Harmony Hospice, which provides care at facilities located throughout Allegheny and Washington counties. “It took the utility companies quite some time to restore power to a lot of residents. This personal care home had moved all of their residents into a part of the building that still had power and heat. They were doubling people up in rooms. It was uncomfortable.”

“The administrator asked if there was any way we might be able to relocate the hospice patients in their facility to decrease the number of people they were doubling up in their rooms,” Suttner continued. “I started making some phone calls. The Pittsburgh area was under a state of emergency and I was having a lot of difficulty. A lot of facilities were working with minimal staff because people were having difficulty getting into work. I had gotten five negative responses that people were not taking admissions.”

Fortunately, Suttner reached Kane Regional Admissions Manager Gwen Bronson, who addressed the matter promptly and helped coordinate the move to Kane McKeesport. Bronson preferred to deflect credit, stating, “That’s part of what we do in this department. It was a challenging time for a lot of people that weekend. Just knowing that we could help them, I didn’t think twice about it.”

Bronson credited Kane McKeesport Administrator Charlene Flaherty, Director of Nursing Justine Coates and her staff for adapting and comforting the hospice patients who stayed for about a week.

Suttner commended Kane for addressing the many details involved in such a move. In addition to finding the appropriate housing for the hospice patients, transportation had to be arranged in the aftermath of a blizzard. Staffing adjustments had to be made to handle the additions. Kane also had to obtain clinical information in order to provide the proper treatment and medicine to each individual making the move.

“Those patients needed to stay there until Feb. 12 because it took a while to have complete power restored to the personal care home that we work with,” Suttner said. “Kane McKeesport worked very closely with us in facilitating the transfer of these patients back to the personal care home. They helped me ensure the safety and well-being of the patients. It was great. Because we worked with Kane Regional for such a long time I had a great confidence level in them. I knew it would not be of great hardship to our patients.”

For more information, contact Doug Suttner, Harmony Hospice Executive Director, at 412.276.4700 or Charlene Flaherty, Kane McKeesport Administrator, at 412.675.8600.

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