Nathan Adelson Hospice gets new leader

Nathan Adelson Hospice, which offers hospice care and palliative medicine in Southern Nevada, has a new leader over an organization that has been in existence for over four decades. The hospice expanded to Pahrump over 10 years ago.

Karen Rubel, who joined Nathan Adelson, a nonprofit hospice, in 2007, took over the reins as president and CEO of the Las Vegas-based organization in early July.

“I just think that we’re so fortunate to have the support of the Pahrump community, both from taking care of their community, taking care of the patients that we have out there, and their support through our foundation,” Rubel said. “We just really love being part of the community.”

Rubel said her “goal is to continue to support Pahrump, the patients and the families there, and just to take care of as many people in Pahrump who need hospice as we can.”

Rubel joined the organization over 12 years ago as vice president of development for the Nathan Adelson Hospice Foundation.

Rubel said she was moved by the Nathan Adelson organization “and hospice is such a wonderful benefit for the people.”

Rubel moved into the role of chief operating officer at Nathan Adelson, which she assumed in 2016.

She replaces former CEO Carole Fisher, who was with the organization for 14 years.

Fisher is transitioning to the role of executive coach and leadership speaker and will serve as a special adviser to Nathan Adelson through 2020, according to information in a news release from the hospice.

“We’ve been planning for this for a couple of years,” Rubel said.

Rubel explained that Fisher decided she wanted to move out of the role of CEO a few years ago.

Rubel said Fisher “decided that she wanted to move onto the next chapter of her life, so she wasn’t going to retire, but she was going to try and reinvent herself again.”

Fisher is set to “… stay on with the organization for the next 18 months, working in strategy and strategic relationships that she has had in the community, and helping the hospice just kind of move forward and grow census and look for the future, so she’ll be behind the scenes, but will still be with the organization,” Rubel said.

Rubel took over the Nathan Adelson organization officially on July 1.

Rubel is a native of Chicago and said she is a “fundraiser by trade.” She moved to the Las Vegas area in 2000 when she took a position with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Rubel worked as the director of development at the University of Nevada Las Vegas for the colleges of fine arts, education, and health sciences. She also held a role as the director of advancement for the Nevada Community Foundation in Las Vegas.

Rubel holds a Bachelor of Arts in English from Eastern Illinois University and a Master of Arts in administration from Dominican University in Illinois. She is also a graduate of the Thayer Institute, where she earned a master’s degree in leadership arts and sciences.

The hospice was founded in 1978 in Las Vegas with in-home hospice care. The nonprofit opened a physical location in Las Vegas in 1983, with its second opening in 1999.

The organization provides 38 beds to the Las Vegas community and services an average of 400 hospice and palliative care patients on a daily basis between its inpatient and in-home hospice care services, according to a news release from the nonprofit.

Pahrump

In Pahrump, Nathan Adelson offers in-home hospice care and has offices at 2270 E. Commercial Road.

Rubel said about 30 employees work to service some roughly 45 patients in the area with in-home hospice care and palliative medicine.

Nathan Adelson has a “strategic relationship” with HealthCare Partners in Pahrump, according to Rubel. She said Nathan Adelson is HealthCare Partners’ preferred provider hospice.

“We’ve started doing some palliative visits in Pahrump, so that’s prior to hospice,” Rubel said. “If a person has a chronic illness and they want to stay at home, that’s just an extra layer of support that we provide out there. The program isn’t that big, but we started doing some of that out there.”

Because Nathan Adelson is a nonprofit, Rubel said the organization can offer services such as “a complementary therapies program, that includes massage therapy, art therapy. We do aromatherapy, so we have lotions and sprays and oils that we use, if someone wants to step out of traditional medicine and use something that’s a little non-traditional, so we provide those to our patients.”

“We have a transportation program, so we provide transportation for the patient, wherever it is they are needing to go,” Rubel said. “So, if they’re coming out of the hospital to home or to doctor’s appointments.”

The hospice also has a large uncompensated care program.

“If a patient is needing hospice care, they don’t have insurance or maybe they’re under-insured, we will still take them,” Rubel said. “We don’t really care about who’s paying for it, but that’s why we have a foundation, and that’s why we’re a nonprofit. We always want to be sure that we’re available to take care of people when they need us.”

“We’ve been a part of the Pahrump community forever, so we always want to do what’s right for the community,” she said.

For more information on services, contact Nathan Adelson at 775-751-6700.

Contact reporter Jeffrey Meehan at jmeehan@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @MeehanLv