Best Healthcare Professional - Dr. Dennis Koffer

DOCTOR HELPS BRING COMFORT, GRACE, DIGNITY TO HOSPICE CARE

By Randy Capps

It's a little hard to tell that Dr. Dennis Koffer is retired.

It's true, though. After more than four decades as a general surgeon, Koffer, 73, did retire in 2016. Three years before, however, he became the medical director at the SECU Hospice House at Johnston Health, and he still holds that post today.

It is for that good work that Koffer has been named Johnston Now Honors Best Healthcare Professional.

“I'm a doc,” he said. “I do what doctors do. I don't feel I've done anything particularly different for hospice than any other doctor would do in a practice.”

He was born and raised in Philadelphia and spent some time in California before moving to Johnston County in the mid 90s.

“It's added 10 years to my life,” he said. “It's the best third of my life.”

While a change of address did him and his wife, Gayle, some good, his work at the SECU Hospice House was also a welcome addition to his medical career.

“There comes a time when people don't want to see their surgeon come to the room with a walker,” he joked. “It was a great transition. … It's given me a chance to talk to people, which surgeons never do.“I wear two hats at the Hospice House. I'm the medical director, which is an administrative position. The government has regulations for hospice care that require administration by a doctor. That's my job. … I also serve as attending doctor for the patients in the hospice, and that is actual patient care. And frankly, that's my preference. Doing the paperwork is no fun for anyone.”

For some, hospice care has a negative connotation. Dr. Koffer has a different view.

“That's not what we're about,” he said. “The image of us only doing death care is a very narrow perspective. … Very few of us, if any, remember our transition from where we were to life. But there were teams of people that collaborated to make sure that transition was as gentle and peaceful as possible. Well, there's another transition. We can't change that. The transition is going to happen. Our commitment is to make sure that transition is as gentle as the first.”

Still, for some, the gravity of dealing with end-of-life care can be an emotional experience.

“You're taught as a doctor that you can't bleed with your patients,” he said. “Because if you did, you would die very quickly. The fact is, as a surgeon, when I had to deliver bad news to people, it was just as gut wrenching as sitting with someone in hospice care. The important thing for the patient at that time is to know that the doctor is with them in hospice. Hospice is a care that really demands presence.

“Whether it's the doctor or the long list of people that really do the care. I'm talking about nurses, CNAs, social workers, chaplains, volunteers, all the way through to maintenance engineers and environmental services — all of those people are with the patients and we believe that it's really important that the patients be surrounded by that.”

Dr. Koffer credits nurses in particular for having the strength to embrace the critical role they play in hospice care.

“The nurses who work at hospice work there because they want to,” he said. “When interviewed, almost all of them say, 'I have a calling for this.' They bring the 'T' and the 'L' of TLC when they come into the room. … They will take every single patient into their heart and love them. And they know that they're going to lose every single one of them. And then when they do, they go home and come back the next morning and start all over again.”

On the surface, it may sound tragic.

But, if you shift your perspective a bit, a different view emerges.

“It's not a sad job at all,” he said. “It's an uplifting job. If you were to visit the Hospice House and see what goes on there, I think you'd be surprised. Most people are, because the Hospice House is a place of life. We're committed to the principle that everyone has the opportunity and right to grow up until the moment they stop breathing. And growth means accumulating experiences, and we're there to provide those experiences. And this is an opportunity to provide only good experiences.

“The rest of us, as we're accumulating experiences on a dayto-day basis, we get traffic tickets. We get headaches. We get holes in our clothing, whatever minor irritations we have. Our job is to make sure that the only experiences our patients accumulate are positive ones. We absolutely commit ourselves to making sure there is joy in the Hospice House.

“In 40-odd years of operating, I had a lot of gratitude from patients and their families. I can't even begin to tell you how much more gratitude we get from families in hospice. We're doing something we consider to be an honor. It's an honor to care for someone at the last transition.”