At Mon Health Medical Center, volunteers provide comfort, care during patient’s final days

Hospitals and health systems have a mission to see that everyone who passes through their doors achieves optimum health – and, sometimes, to ensure that patients receive a peaceful, compassionate death.

Mon Health Medical Center in Morgantown, W.Va., recently began its chapter of the nationwide project No One Dies Alone, which uses volunteers to provide comfort and companionship in a patient’s final moments.

An eligible patient must be expected to die within 72 hours; has a “do not resuscitate” order in place; has been placed on comfort care, if appropriate; and has no family or friends who are able to be present. Some patients have outlived family and friends; some are too far away for family and friends to reach them in time. Regardless, they will not pass alone. The volunteers may talk with the patient, listen to their concerns, or simply provide a hand to hold or a compassionate presence.

“We have established the NODA program at Mon Health Medical Center for patients who need accompaniment during their dying days,” said Kathy Kerzak, pastoral care coordinator at Mon Health Medical Center. “This program provides compassionate companions to be a caring presence and advocate so that the patient might have peace in their final days.”

Read more about Mon Health’s Medical Center’s program and NODA here.