Video: Sanctuary Hospice House Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary

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TUPELO, Miss. (WCBI)-Next month, the Sanctuary Hospice House will be celebrating its 10th year in the business

What once started out as just a simple idea has finally come full circle.

The now familiar yellow building on Highway 6  was the very first non-profit hospice house in rural America.

“Being the first in the region, we were able to establish the kind of care that we felt like was needed for the area,” current administrator George Hand said.

Its founders had vision for a clinical, home-like setting that would offer physical, spiritual, and emotional support to patients.

But as we know, being the first of anything comes with pressure.

Current administrator George Hand says it was the love from the community, that helped Sanctuary through those tough first years

“A lot of our success is due to the community support we’ve had from physicians and other community providers from out of the community that have referred patients to Sanctuary,” Hand said.

After servicing the community for 5 years, the Hospice wanted to give their patients even better service, and they did just that by adding the ‘In Home Hospice’ center in 2010.

“We think that every patient and family member deserves the very best care, the very best compassionate care that they need during this time of their life, and we feel like it’s what separates us from other hospice facilities,” Hand said.

The in-home and in-patient Hospices have served over 4 thousands patients and families combined.  Although the numbers speak for themselves, Hand says the success would be nothing without it’s staff.

“It took a lot of people to get Sanctuary to where it is now, they put a lot of hard work in it, a lot of money went into it, but you know, they stuck with it through the good and bad times and it’s helped us get to where we are now,” registered nurse Courtney Rooker said.

Ten years into the game is a huge milestone for Sanctuary, and workers say  they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.

Sanctuary is about two weeks away from its annual celebration Village fundraiser.  This year the holiday marketplace will have a special exhibit detailing the first decade.