Photo by Jenny Kirk The front door of the new McLaughlin Hospice House was open for people to walk in and take a look around during a grand opening on Tuesday in Marshall. The Prairie Home Hospice facility is the second to open in the community.

MARSHALL — Renovations on the McLaughlin Hospice House are complete and the first four patients are expected to be admitted in about two to three weeks, which will help meet the needs of people in the community.

The McLaughlin House is the second Prairie Home Hospice house in Marshall. A large number of people took the opportunity to look around the spacious facility at its grand opening on Tuesday.

“It’s gorgeous,” board member Deb Herrmann said. “They’ve done a nice job.”

With five patient beds at the Lockwood House and now four more at the McLaughlin House, Prairie Home Hospice is doing it’s part to provide a valuable service to the community. Unfortunately, there are still needs not being met.

“We currently have a long waiting list of hospice patients seeking admission to our residential hospice program,” said Pat Mellenthin, CEO of Prairie Home Hospice. “We anticipate that the McLaughlin House will be at full capacity from the start, and with the growing demand we’ve seen for our residential hospice program, we expect that McLaughlin House is likely to remain at full capacity for the foreseeable future.”

Once the Minnesota Department of Health completes the final licensing process — likely to take up to three weeks — patients will be admitted.

“The McLaughlin House offers four more beds, but there are 26 on the waiting list,” Herrmann said. “There’s still a big need.”

Shortly after the McLaughlin House was purchased in September 2016, Medicare made significant changes to the building codes for residential hospice homes, requiring that Medicare-certified residential hospice homes basically follow the same building codes as hospitals and nursing homes.

The new laws expanded the scope and cost of the project in addition to significantly altering the timeline.

“We are so proud to provide a second residential house to hospice patients and their families in the community,” Mellenthin said. “It took us longer to get here than we expected, but the final outcome is worth the wait.”

McLaughlin House includes a family suite to accommodate families who are visiting loved ones. The family suite offers a comfortable setting that includes a living area, kitchen/dining area, sleeping quarters, three-fourths bath and laundry facilities.

Families may rent the family suite for a few hours, for a weekend to accommodate family that is visiting from out of town or on a longer-term basis for those who want to remain close to their loved one. When the family suite is not being rented by an individual family, it will be open to all families of residents at the house throughout the day and evening.

“The House will be staffed 24 hours a day,” said Tara Plante, marketing and development director for Prairie Home Hospice. “There are always two nurses on duty at both of the houses. And (the McLaughlin House) is considered non-secure. Patients can come and go. It should feel like a person’s home.”

Plante said it was fortunate that the capital campaign exceeded its initial goal, which allowed Prairie Home Hospice to cover the additional cost associated with the changes in the building codes. About 20 percent of their budget is community-driven.

“The dedication, support and commitment of the community has been amazing,” she said. “Like Lockwood Hospice House, which was built in 2004, McLaughlin House was built by a very caring community. This was an effort by the community to serve the community, just as it’s been doing since 1984, when Prairie Home Hospice was first established. Our volunteers on the capital campaign team, led by co-chairs Deb Herrmann and Dr. Vince LaPorte, did a great job.”

While there was a lot of beautiful décor scattered throughout the facility, two handmade items seemed to get the most attention. In the room just to the left of the front door, a vibrant arrangement of flowers, peacock feathers and butterflies was spotted.

“I made that,” Addy VanMoer said. “I love peacock feathers and I heard they were having blues and browns in the House here.”

VanMoer received even more compliments for her jewelry creation that formed the letter “M,” in honor of Jack McLaughlin.

“Jack made the first significant donation toward the House,” Mellenthin said. “Lockwood Motors also made a significant donation early in our capital campaign, which is why we named our first hospice house Lockwood House at that time.”

VanMoer said she asked McLaughlin’s daughter, Kellie (Julian), if she could use some of his jewelry for the framed display she and her husband, Lawrence, were making.

“I used Jack’s cufflinks and jackknife, along with some of my own jewelry,” VanMoer said. “But most of the jewelry is Judy Nielsen’s.”

With the addition of McLaughlin House, the need for more volunteers also increased. Anyone interested in becoming a part of the Prairie Home Hospice volunteer team should contact Pam Hess, human resource manager, at 507-337-0080.

“The opening of a second hospice house in the community has created increased volunteer opportunities with Prairie Home Hospice,” Hess said. “We have a variety of volunteer opportunities that include visiting with patients, assisting with meal preparation and serving at our hospice houses, baking cookies, tending gardens, reading to patients, among others.”

Prairie Home Hospice and Community Care is not affiliated with Avera or any other health care system.

“We are the only independent, free-standing, nonprofit provider of Medicare-certified hospice and home care services in the community,” Plante said. “There are 14 in the state and we have two of them in Marshall.”