Hope Hospice and Palliative Care, serving

Southwest Florida, has received the Circle of Life Citation of Honor for its "outstanding program to improve the care of patients near the end

of life" and to non-hospice patients, including victims of crime.

The Circle of Life citation recognizes programs across the country that have made great strides in advancing palliative and end-of-life care and related services.

The awards are supported by the Robert Wood Johnson

Foundation in Princeton, N.J., and are sponsored by the American Hospital Association, the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, the American Medical Association and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.

Under President and CEO Samira K. Beckwith, Hope

Hospice initiated an Open Access strategy, which makes services

available to anyone who needs hospice care, regardless of age, diagnosis or ability to pay.

"Our mission to provide quality care was already clear," Beckwith said. "Our Open Access strategy helped us to better

focus our attention to how to take care of the individual person, not

just the patient that the system may try to make them."

The Open Access strategy and culture also led to programs that go

beyond the traditional boundaries of hospice care. Pathways of Hope

Counseling Center supports schools, businesses, law enforcement, health care professionals and other community organizations with training in grief and loss counseling.

Pathways also includes the Victims of Crime Assistance program, which supports law enforcement agencies by working with victims' families.

Hope Hospice was selected by a committee made up of leaders from

medicine, nursing, social work, and health administration. This is the fourth year for the Circle of Life Award.