Community Home Health & Hospice is shutting the doors on both of its hospice centers in Southwest Washington by the end of the month due to financial and logistical woes.
The nonprofit operates the Elaine and Don Heimbigner Hospice Care Center in Clark County and a center in Longview. Both will be closed by the end of April, a Thursday press release said.
Eden Health, a company that operates 36 hospice centers across the country, will take over all services for Community’s patients, but will not use the buildings. Both companies announced the transfer in January of this year.
“Multiple factors led to this decision, the first being unable to find a community partner willing to operate the facility as a hospice care center,” the release said. “Second, Community cannot operate a hospice care center without an In-Home Hospice Certificate of Need.”
The organization reported a $3.7 million loss in 2022. Excluding COVID-era business loans, Community had not turned an annual profit since 2018.
The Heimbigner Hospice Care Center in Salmon Creek, which opened in 2015, contains 10 private suites, a chapel and garden. There is no plan for the building starting next month, according to Cari Clizbe, associate director of environmental services for Community.
Eden Health, which has a facility in Salmon Creek, offered jobs to most of Community’s clinical and administrative staff, according to the release.
“We are committed to continuing to provide the highest level of quality care to the residents of Southwest Washington and Columbia County and look forward to the opportunity that this brings for our mutual patients and employee-owners,” Brent Weil, president and CEO of Eden Health, said in a press release.
The Salmon Creek facility’s last day of operations is today. The Longview center will remain open until the end of April, Clizbe said.
