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 | Community Connections | Fall 2020

Good Shepherd Health Care System | 

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“I usually tell people that this is 
the smallest and the best team of 
healthcare professionals I’ve worked 
with. The rural setting has something 
to do with it, but the drivers are 
purpose and approach – we try to 
‘keep it human.’ On our best days 
we ‘slow down and show up’ to each 
patient and family. Again, it’s all about 
the relationship. We are guests in their 
homes, we aim to have ‘power with’ 
rather than power over them. If we do 
our jobs right, we, in effect, ‘join the 
family’ and take this journey together,” 
he shared.

“Our team is collaborative. We all have 
an encrypted text phone application 
which we use to support each other 
during our day. Everyone chimes in – 
‘there’s a change in condition with so 
and so…. We need a prescription taken 
to Pendleton, followed by, ‘Yes, I can 
do that!’ This is hospice, where the goal 
is to help people live as well as they 
can, for as long as they can. But at 
VJMH it’s not just about efficiency, it’s 
about humanity. That is, actually being 
with someone during their last days 
and caring about them, not just caring 
for them.”

For Ruehl, he often asks himself and 
his team the hard questions. “How do 
I stay human in this particular family 

Loving Care & Connection 

in the Midst of Suffering

Vange John Memorial Hospice Team

“The support and genuine 

compassion you have shown to  

us was heart-warming.” 

-Pendleton Family of Good  

Shepherd Hospice Patient 

“You have restored my  

faith in Hospice. Thank you  

for all you do.” 

–Pendleton Family of Good 

Shepherd Hospice Patient

“One of the best things  

I’ve done in my condition is 

getting Home Health to come  

to my home.” 

–Home Health Patient

“You were a lifesaver  

to me; you came alongside 

me with your smiles and 

encouraging words.” 

Good Shepherd Hospice  

Patient in Pendleton

Shepherd staff for the outstanding 
care and professional service they 
provide to this area. Volunteering with 
hospice has given me a rewarding 
opportunity to serve in these really 
challenging times!”

The new service area since expansion 
includes areas up to 60 miles from 
the home office in Hermiston. “This 
expansion has taken us as far as Ukiah 
over to Milton-Freewater and up the 
hill to Meacham,” stated Heather. “Just 
in the first few months, our home 
health and hospice staff drove many, 
many miles – over 35,000 miles and 
a total of 2,830 patient visits. We 
finished the 2019 year with 205, 890 
miles and 15,447 visits between the 
two services lines,” Heather shared. 
“2020 is already showing they are on 
track to provide care with the same 
stats, if not more”. 

“The Good Shepherd Health Care 
System Board of Trustees, as well 
as Administration, are extremely 
supportive of our efforts to serve this 
area. The more busier we got and the 
show of support from local physicians 
and clinics, we soon received the 
green light to open up a satellite office 
in Pendleton. This was helpful to keep 
costs down and gave a place for those 
already working for GSHCS Home 
Health and Vange John Memorial 
Hospice a place to work that kept 
them in the Pendleton community,” 
stated Heather. 

Heather has worked for Good 
Shepherd the past seven years – 
seven in Home Health and four years 
in Hospice. “These past three years 
of expansion have been the most 
exciting and the hardest to navigate, 

Home Health Expansion 

(continued)

as we have grown leaps and bounds. 
We have staff committed to the work 
they do and quality of care they 
provide, and they do it very well. 
Everyday seems to throw something 
new at us, but we keep moving 
forward. We are lucky to be part of 
an organization that is committed to 
providing a variety of avenues for our 
community members to receive the 
care they need outside of a hospital 
setting” Heather shared. 

Kirk Ruehl has served as the chaplain at Good Shepherd Health Care 

System and Vange John Memorial Hospice (VJMH) for several years 
now. He has prior experience with five hospice organizations during 

his chaplaincy career and feels his current partnership with Good 

Shepherd’s hospice has been the best. “It’s all about relationships. 

Our people are invested. For example, I’m usually the second team 
member in the home. After the standard, ‘Hello Chaplain,’ again 

and again I hear the following: ‘Boy, do we love Richard! (or Melissa, 

or Polly, Danielle, Carly, Tonya or Sherra).’ It’s like clockwork. Our 

patients truly connect with and appreciate our team,” stated Ruehl. 

context? What unique gifts do I bring 
to the team effort? How can we help 
this individual human being ‘leave this 
world at peace and in love?’ Truth-
be-told, we witness a lot of incredible 
moments,” he stated. 

“Richard is a nurse on our hospice 
team that exemplifies our culture and 
purpose. We had a patient on hospice 
for two years, from the age of 98 to 
100. She was spunky and tireless in her 
desire to share with every visitor to 
her remote mountain home, including 
our team members, all about her life. 
Richard did things like attend her 
birthday party and showcase pictures 
of her early ‘wild’ days with the team. 
All this with her permission, of course. 
She wanted me to sing the old gospel 
hymns every time I visited. Over two 
years, that’s a lot of singing. And try 
doing that through an N-95 mask!”

Ruehl explains the importance of 
sharing in the patients’ stories. “We 
are not just treating patients, we are 
receiving stories. We get to experience 
‘the words under the words’. This 
is what happens with Vange John 
Memorial Hospice and why we are 
different. Families tend to remember 
those that are intentionally present 
with them at a death just like those 
present with them at a birth. There is 

a ‘rite of passage Holiness’ in the air 
most of the time.” stated Ruehl.

“For various reasons, the reality of 
death is something most families 
don’t want or don’t know how to 
discuss. Often hospice practice and its 
philosophy of care is misunderstood,” 
he shared. “We have the privilege 
to walk into that space and honor 
as humbly as we know how what’s 
happening with the patient. When we 
leave a patient like the 100 year old 
who passed last week, families will say, 
‘We’ve made friends with you, what 
happens now?’ And that sums it up.”

Vange John Memorial Hospice nurses 
visit patients 2-3 times a week and 
support both patient and family until 
death. Grief specialists keep in touch 
with the family for a year afterward. 
“The connections our staff makes with 
hospice families lives on. We have a 
team of people who have decided that 
hospice work is where they want to cut 
their path in the world. They want to 
know that their work matters. It does.” 

 Chaplain Kirk Ruehl is happy to meet 
with individuals, families, churches 
and other community groups to help 
all who are interested in having a 
conversation about life, death and 
anything in between.