Episode Details

Caring Hearts and Hands of Columbia is a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to taking care of people at the end of their life. Nurse Jackie Reed and Deb Portell of Caring Hearts and Hands of Columbia joined host Fred Parry in-studio for the hour Saturday morning on 939 the Eagle's "CEO Roundtable" program. Ms. Reed tells listeners that their home "basically takes the place of a person’s own home. And our guests and volunteers, I mean our volunteers and our staff, are an extension of their family." Ms. Reed, who co-founded Caring Hearts and Hands of Columbia, is a nurse with 28 years of experience at Boone Hospital Center. Her passion for end-of-life care is due to personal family losses. Ms. Portell is a board member who has a heart for those nearing the end of their life. She appreciated hospice care during the final days of four members of her family and became a hospice volunteer in 2001. Jackie Reed and co-founder Dorreen Rardin saw patients throughout their nursing careers who needed end-of-life care but couldn't afford it. Those patients didn't have anyone to assist them at home at the end of their lives: