AMOREM seeks final $1.6M to open High Country inpatient hospice

AMOREM is asking supporters in Burke County and across Western North Carolina to help finish fundraising for a new inpatient hospice facility in the High Country, a project the nonprofit says would reduce the need for families to travel to Valdese or Caldwell County during end-of-life care.

The organization said it is $1.75 million short of its $8.3 million capital campaign goal for the AMOREM SECU Patient Care Unit of the High Country, an inpatient hospice facility intended to serve the region. AMOREM’s goal is to open the facility debt-free.

The unit is named for the State Employees’ Credit Union Foundation, which AMOREM said provided a $1.5 million gift to the project. AMOREM held an open house last summer, and state officials later inspected the facility. During the inspection, the organization said, items were identified that must be addressed before patients can be admitted.

AMOREM said the building is complete and the current goal is to open and be ready for patients by spring.

“We still need the community’s support to get this patient care unit open and ready to serve individuals and their families at the end of life,” said Kerri L. McFalls, AMOREM’s chief growth and development officer. “The goal has always been to open this facility debt free and because of the continued support from the community, we should be able to.”

AMOREM said the High Country unit would be the only inpatient hospice facility of its kind in that region. Without it, the organization said, some patients who need inpatient hospice care must receive support in a hospital or travel down the mountain to one of AMOREM’s existing patient care units in Burke or Caldwell counties.

AMOREM, a nonprofit hospice and palliative medicine provider, said it provides care regardless of a patient’s ability to pay and pointed to its most recent fiscal-year service totals, including hospice and palliative care patients served and charitable care provided.

The organization said an anonymous donor has pledged to match community gifts dollar-for-dollar up to $250,000.

“We hope that the High Country will take advantage of this matching gift challenge and double their year-end giving impact,” McFalls said.

AMOREM is also recruiting nurses and certified nursing assistants to staff the new facility. Job information is available through the careers page at amoremsupport.org, the organization said.

AMOREM was formed in 2021 through the merger of Burke Hospice and Palliative Care and Caldwell Hospice and Palliative Care.

For those interested in making a gift, visit www.amoremsupport.org and click DONATE NOW.

— AVN