Hope Hospice marks 40 years

For 40 years, Hope Hospice and Palliative Care has been an anchor for individuals and families in Taylor County, and beyond, as they deal with end-of-life medical conditions.

Hospice services work directly with families and doctors to provide care and symptom management for terminally ill patients through a medically-supervised interdisciplinary team of professionals and volunteers.

Hope Hospice services include coordinating with community agencies, professional nursing services, helping with household chores and errands, serving as patient advocate in obtaining information from physicians or community agencies and services, assisting with financial matters including wills and funeral planning, social and spiritual care and companionship and an understanding heart.

The idea of Hope Hospice got its start in the early 1980s. A nurse, Barb Meyer and her husband John, a local pastor, began noticing terminally ill patients needed more unhurried, personally comforting care. She was at the forefront of organizing home-based hospice care in rural Wisconsin “I became aware, as did others, that residents who were terminally ill often needed more time spent with them to discuss what they were experiencing, what their hopes and wishes were, and some of them had unfinished business they wanted to go home to take care of,” said Barb Meyer in a May 2025 interview with Maddie Scharrer of the UW School of Nursing.

Current executive director Nicole Syryczuk has been with Hope Hospice for almost 15 years. She explained that Hope Hospice started in Rib Lake with their work with the Rib Lake Nursing Home.

“They were recognizing their patients that were suffering from terminal illness or cancer needed that extra support and symptom management, so that's how it all came about,” Syryczuk said.

Hope Hospice was incorporated in 1983 and for several years provided services as unpaid volunteers. Funding to keep the doors open was through fundraising activities and community support. Syryczuk noted the We Whittlesey Whizzers snowmobile club has been a supporter since the very beginning.

Years of labor and volunteer work took place as Hope Hospice grew from an idea to a reality. Hope Hospice, Inc. became Medicare certified and accepted their first home care patient on July 23, 1985. This year marks the 40th anniversary of that date.

Care provided by Hope Hospice is done under the supervision of a medical director. The first medical director for the agency was Dr. Valdimir Uhri, currently Dr. Ronald Cooper, M.D. serves as medical director and the back up medical director is Katherine Winiarczyk, MD, MBA. In 1985, Hope Hospice staff and volunteers served about a 30 miles radius from their office in Rib Lake. “Now we are at about a 100 mile radius,” Syryczuk said, noting they have expanded in recent years due to the closure of a hospice in Price County and now serve patients and families throughout a region that includes Thorp, Ladysmith, Phillips as well as all of Taylor County.

Syryczuk praised the organization’s longtime staff and volunteers as being at the heart of the success Hope Hospice has seen over the years. Syryczuk explained that the medical staff is an important part of the services they provide, but also as important are the volunteers. Medicare rules require at least 5% of patients care to be provided by volunteers and they have met that requirement with a crew currently of about 20 active volunteers. She said they always welcome new volunteers and noted that people can be somewhat hesitant about volunteering with hospice. She said people ask if they need a medical background. “Absolutely not,” Syryczuk said, noting that volunteers help with the social and emotional needs of the patients.

“There are so many people who just want somebody to come and visit them because I can't get out of the home anymore or to read The Star News to them,” she said. She explained that they have volunteers who bring magazines and newspapers and take patients out for ice cream. She said they just need people who are able to commit a little bit of time and Hope Hospice will provide the training they need with volunteer coordinator Elise Woik.

In addition to the medical staff and volunteers, the number of office staff has grown over the years as Hope Hospice has grown not only in service area but in number of patients.

“Probably the biggest change that I notice is just the need for that service. As our population is aging, and there are lots of obviously life-limiting conditions out there,” Syryczuk, noting people are choosing not to go for aggressive treatments and therapies. She said in the past two and a half years, the number of patients they care for has doubled.

“We continue to grow and while that has been a blessing, it is hard because people need that help. It is never easy to take that path of hospice,” Syryczuk said.

Hospice goes beyond direct patient care to assisting families and providing grief support services following the death of a patients. “We offer support up to 13 months after the the patient or the loved one passes away, and that can be a phone call, it can be letters, it can be a group support workshops, all of those things,” she said. She said they send out newsletters to families and hold memorial services twice a year in spring and fall. She noted that every person’s journey in grief is different. She said people might appear to be doing OK from the outside but on the inside that is not the case, and that is why grief support is a part of the services they provide.

Hope Hospice was founded in Rib Lake and had their first office there in a building donated by the Miklautsch family. The served the area for many years out of that building, but eventually outgrew that space and moved into Medford with a satellite office in space in what was then Memorial Health Center. Hope Hospice purchased their current building at 537 W Broadway Ave. in Medford to remain close to the hospital and nursing home facilities. Syryczuk said they have outgrown their current space. “We're busting at the seams here now,” she said. In coming years, Hope Hospice is looking to build a new office on space purchased from the city of Medford.

Syryczuk praised the foresight and guidance of the organization’s board of directors has provided over the years. “We have 11 board of directors on our board right now they are all very active, and each come from different backgrounds that brings a really nice balance to the board of understanding,” she said.

As Hope Hospice celebrates 40 years of serving patients and their families, they look forward to many more years of serving the Taylor County community and beyond.

Hope Hospice will be having a community celebration of 40 years of serving the area.

The reception will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 27 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the RCU Pavilion at 130 S. Whelen Ave. in downtown Medford.

Food will be catered by Black River Industries (BRI). They invite community members to join them in celebrating 40 years.