About Us 

Our Background

Hospice is a concept of care that goes back at least to the 5th century B.C. By the 11th century, religious orders were establishing a series of hospices to care for the injured and dying returning from the crusades. And in Chaucer's 14th century Canterbury Tales, there is mention of hospice as a resting place or shelter where weary pilgrims, including the sick and dying, could receive individual compassionate care.

Eventually, the term "hospice" came to focus exclusively on specialized end-of-life care, involving not only medical care for patients, but emotional and spiritual support for both patient and family. Beginning in the 1930's, interest began to grow in the psychological aspects of dying and bereavement. Americans were particularly aware of this through the work of Kubler-Ross.

Twenty-five years ago, a group of forward-looking and compassionate individuals in the Charlottesville area became impressed with a new grassroots movement just then making its way from England to the United States. The movement was hospice -- an approach to end-of-life care that focused on the quality, not quantity, of an individual's final days. The impetus that led to the founding of Hospice of the Piedmont can be traced back to an address at University of Virginia by Dame Cicely Saunders on October 4, 1978. The founder of St. Christopher's Hospice in London., Dr. Saunders is widely recognized as "the mother of the modern hospice movement."

Inspired by her address, a group of local citizens began to explore the possibility of providing a hospice program for this area. Among those responsible for the founding of Hospice of the Piedmont, three names stand out in particular: Adge Coburn, Dr. George Cooper and Dr. William Sandusky. Under their leadership, a group of interested persons was enlisted and, by the fall of 1980, the newly incorporated Hospice of the Piedmont was ready to accept its first patient. Dr. Cooper, then head of Radiology at UVA, became the first President of the Board of Directors and remained actively interested until his death in 1999.

Initially located on Sycamore Street in a small house owned by Martha Jefferson Hospital, the hospice, with the help of the Perry Foundation,  moved into a 2-story Victorian house on East Jefferson in the fall of 1987. Gradually outgrowing that facility, the hospice moved into an office building on North 29 in August 1994 and, in April, 1999, relocated to a new medical building in the Pantops area where Martha Jefferson Hospital had agreed to lease space for the agency's offices.  In spring of 2004, Hospice of the Piedmont relocated to its current location on Old Ivy Road. 

Since 1988, Hospice of the Piedmont has been certified to provide service under the Hospice Medicare Benefit.

Responding to the need for hospice care in areas without a Medicare certified Hospice, the original service area of Charlottesville and five (5) counties now encompasses nine (9) counties in Central Virginia -- Albemarle, Augusta, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Madison, Louisa, Nelson and Orange. With a current professional and administrative staff of 70 and a volunteer corps of 150. Hospice of the Piedmont provides care for an average daily census of 185 patients and their families.

In these twenty-five years of service, Hospice of the Piedmont has provided care for more than 14,000 terminally ill patients and their families throughout the Central Virginia community. Each day, the staff of health care professionals is sent out to patients' homes where, with the help of trained volunteers, they provide comfort and supportive care for the unique needs they encounter. For those patients who no longer live in their own homes, the services of Hospice of the Piedmont extend to assisted living facilities, nursing homes and other facilities where patients reside. Beyond these comprehensive services, Hospice of the Piedmont provides resources for the community on the issues of death and dying, including bereavement support groups for all ages.

Through more than two decades of service, Hospice of the Piedmont has lived out a pervasive philosophy and unique approach to end-of-life care: that the patient's choice must be upheld, that no one should die alone or in pain, and that the needs of the entire family must be addressed. Acknowledging that we cannot add days to life, we have dedicated ourselves to "adding life to days," sharing the journey with our patients and families, enabling them to live fully through all stages of illness and bereavement. During all our years of service, we have been guided by the philosophy of hospice care so clearly and succinctly expressed by the late Dame Cicely Saunders:

"You matter because you are you.  You matter to the last moment of your life, and we will do all we can, not only to help you die peacefully, but to live (fully) until you die."