By Bob Zimberoff bzimberoff@stardem.com
EASTON — The new executive director of Talbot Hospice Foundation, Mary Ellen Shea, said she has never received a warmer welcome.
Since her first day Dec. 8, many people have stopped by her office, approached her as she toured the hospice facility or greeted her in the guest wing. She said they tell her they’re glad she’s there.
“This really impressed me. From the time I arrived, in all my hospice experience … this is the first place that I’ve received such a welcome,” Shea said. “It was just amazing to me because I’ve never experienced that — people coming forth. Usually, you have to make the overture. … They invited me. They welcomed me into the Hospice Foundation family. That’s what it feels like.”
Shea and her husband, Richard — who is retired, originally from Baltimore and lived previously on Kent Island and in Ocean City — moved from North Carolina to Easton in a hurry. Shea accepted the job in late November and within three weeks bought a home at Easton Club East, moved from North Carolina and started work at Talbot Hospice.
Shea joins the foundation during a time of significant growth. In late October, Talbot Hospice announced that its building on Cynwood Drive was set to double in size. Work is well underway, and plans include six new guest rooms, a new bereavement center, a family room, a child’s play loft, new space for clinical staff and terraces and gardens surrounding the building. Work is expected to be completed in June.
In November, the Talbot Hospice Foundation, which offers end-of-life services, became a fully licensed medical hospice. Before becoming fully licensed, the foundation only could provide support services such as bereavement and spiritual programs and general care services. Now it can accept more patients and provide more care options.
“I’m excited to be here,” Shea said. “Wonderful people work here — wonderful people that have found their purpose and their dedication to be here and give to people in a real trying and hurtful time in their life.”
Shea, who is originally from Michigan, has an extensive professional background in health care and hospice leadership. She worked in health care administration in Michigan, then moved in 1990 to Florida, where she was an administrator in physician services at Monroe Regional Medical Center in Ocala, Fla.
In 1997, she had a life-changing experience when her previous husband, James Casey, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.
“While in hospital management, I had my own personal hospice experience with my late husband, and that had a profound effect on my life,” she said. “When he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, I didn’t know anything about hospice except that it was for someone who is going to die. Hospice made such a profound impact on my life because they were there to journey with both of us. He needed someone to talk to, and I needed someone to talk to.”
Casey had six adult children, Shea’s stepchildren, who were in their 30s and 40s. Shea said they weren’t prepared to handle Casey’s terminal illness, so she turned to Lake Sumter Hospice in Lady Lake, Fla., for emotional support.
“I needed someone to talk to because I wanted to deal with the reality of what was happening,” Shea said. “It was the social worker that was there for me and held my hand and listened as I tried to deal with the reality of what was happening in my life.”
Shea said Casey spoke often with a chaplain provided by hospice. She recalled telling a hospice nurse that she didn’t know how to plan for the future.
“She said to me, ‘Mary Ellen, you need to live in the moment and in the day.’ I said, ‘I don’t know how.’ And she said, ‘That’s why hospice is here. We’re going to show you how to live in the moment, how to have quality,’” Shea said. “So, from the aid, to the nurse, to the social worker, to the chaplain, I don’t know how I would have done it without them.”
After a seven-year relationship with Mary Ellen, Casey died in 1999 at 76 years old. Shea then took a year off work to reflect.
“After a year, I started to volunteer for hospice,” Shea said. “I wanted to share with people that had no idea of what hospice is all about.”
Shea volunteered in patient care at Hospice of Marion County in Ocala when what she described as “synchronicity” led to a hospice career.
“I was in the volunteer office one day and a former colleague walked through the door and told me they were looking for a professional services director to work with the physicians at Hospice of Marion County,” she said.
Shea began working professionally at Hospice of Marion County in 2002 and worked there for about three years. She worked with the physicians, then professional outreach, then in admissions and marketing.
She then became a director at Gulfside Regional Hospice, “one of the largest hospices in the United States,” she said.
She worked there for about a year when she moved to North Carolina and became an executive director at Hospice of Avery County.
“I was there for about two years and worked with their board to figure out a plan whereby they could expand and provide services to all of the counties along the mountains of western North Carolina,” Shea said.
She then moved to Richmond County Hospice in Rockingham, N.C., where she was the CEO and helped to make big changes.
“With many others, I instituted electronic medical records and converted a six-bed residential facility into a six-bed inpatient facility and achieved accreditation,” Shea said.
Shea helped obtain accreditation through the Community Health Accreditation Program.
According to the website, www.chapinc.org, “Your customers look for CHAP accreditation as their assurance that your programs or facilities are of the highest quality. … As a service provider, you have the advantage of clearly defined and internationally accepted standards to ensure that your services remain among the elite for excellence.”
Shea helped achieve all this at Richmomd County Hospice despite four hospice competitors in the area. After roughly 5½ years in Rockingham, Shea moved to Easton.
“I believe that is my calling, to be with hospices as they go through and meet different challenges,” Shea said. “The greatest fulfillment that I have had in my career is to go back to those organizations — I’ll follow them on the Web — to see how they’ve grown.”
Shea said she intends to help Talbot Hospice Foundation grow.
“I’m very future oriented,” she said. “One of the things that excited me that I’m experienced in is moving us to an inpatient facility. That’s down the road. What I hope to do right now is get to know the staff, motivate them and encourage them as we walk into the future.”
