For more than four decades, Pikes Peak Hospice & Palliative Care, through love, compassion and the Empty Stocking Fund, has touched the lives of residents ages 1 to 100.

PPH&PC provides compassionate and expert end-of-life care to patients and their families, and ensures comfort for those facing serious illness. The region’s only nonprofit hospice, PPH&PC serves those who need care regardless of socioeconomic status.

Contributions to the Empty Stocking Fund help provide compassionate and specialized end-of-life care to community members impacted by life-limiting illness. Since 1980, PPH&PC has served thousands of patients and their families facing physical, emotional and spiritual demands of life-limiting illness. PPH&PC answers questions, and offers resources and support.

“PPH&PC has been the community leader in end-of-life care for almost 42 years. Every year, it helps more than 2,000 patients and families navigate the challenges of a life-limiting illness with comfort, dignity and fulfillment,” Executive Director Susan Edmondson said.

“It’s gratifying to be part of a cohort of exceptional nonprofit organizations doing so much for some of the most vulnerable people in our community.”

Since its inception, PPH&PC has served tens of thousands of Pikes Peak region residents. The nonprofit ESF supports the full range of health and human service needs of residents, including Pikes Peak Hospice as a partner agency, demonstrating that every stage of life, including end of life, is precious.

“On any given day, we have about 280 hospice and 200 palliative care patients in our care. Care teams service patients wherever they call home. Each year we also serve more than 1,000 children and adults through individuals and group therapy at our Center for Grief & Loss,” Edmondson said.

ESF serves anyone who needs care despite financial means or lack of insurance. Charitable dollars help cover that cost instead of passing costs on to other patients. “ESF ensures PPH&PC turns no one away who needs care while still preserving financial stability, so it will serve all who need care in the years ahead,” Edmondson said.

Following COVID, health care organizations faced significant challenges retaining staff. To overcome this change, PPH&PC implemented an organizational culture that continues to put teamwork and its patient-and-facility-centered mission at the center for all it does.

“We foster a culture that support and respects one another, listens and learns from our frontline staff, and ensures leadership’s focus is on supporting everyone in being the best they can be,” Edmondson said.

“One example is our Gratitude Channel on our workplace communications platform. Team members praise each other when they experience a colleague going above and beyond for patients. … Our culture has allowed us to retain an extraordinary workforce in a reality where hospice reimbursement fails to keep up with rising demands.”

This summer, PPH&PC opened the region’s only freestanding 12-suite hospice inpatient care center designed specifically for the unique needs of hospice care patients and their families. “This is where we envelope our patients and their families with exceptional care at the most tender moments,” Edmondson said.

Through donations to Empty Stocking Fund, PPH&PC also provides wrap-around, holistic services beyond what insurance may cover. This includes complementary music and pet music therapies, emergency patient assistance, a full-time veterans’ liaison, and special programs creating enriching and memorable moments for patients near end of life and their families.

“By getting involved, you become part of something bigger than yourself, individual business or organization. We appreciate that ESF listens to its partner agencies and manages this powerful campaign efficiently so all the partner agencies can put our time and focus into fulfilling our mission and serving others,” Edmondson said.