About Us

Our History

“We Saw a Need to Care for the Dying”
Hospice & Palliative Care of Northeastern Illinois (HPNI) evolved into existence early in 1984 when a small group of volunteers gathered to investigate the feasibility of starting a community-based hospice in northeastern Illinois.

Led by oncologist Dr. Lary Kilton and psychologist Dr. Elizabeth Pannier, the original working board met on January 26, 1984, at the Ela Area Library in Lake Zurich to discuss their mission and form an organization. In a series of further meetings they formulated a mission statement based in part on the 1979 National Hospice position statement:

• The Hospice of Northeastern Illinois, Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the purpose of providing a highly qualified team of trained and caring individuals who can recognize the needs and concerns of the dying and share their time and abilities with those whose needs exceed the traditional medical delivery of services. The focus of care is with the patient and family at home, and care continues should admission to other healthcare facilities be necessary.
• The Hospice is committed to care that will ease the passage from life to death and ensure a higher quality of living for both the patient and the family. The Hospice of Northeastern Illinois is committed to community education about the Hospice concept of care and ongoing educational programs for Hospice professionals and volunteers. Speaking engagements, seminars, and publications will be made available to the community as the Hospice continues to develop.

Elizabeth Pannier is widely credited with having the vision to bring the organization from dream to reality. Under her leadership, the organization set up a one-room office in Barrington with a single desk and phone in order to serve its first patients in 1985—a young man with ALS and an infant suffering from neurological wasting disease. The founders and volunteers provided care in round-the-clock shifts themselves.

Soon the demands outstripped the tiny space, and the all-volunteer group began to meet in a home on the property of Good Shepherd Hospital, eventually moving to its long-time home on Hager Avenue in Barrington. The organization became licensed as a full hospice in 1988, with a director and a clinical staff. Eventually Hospice of Northeastern Illinois merged with Hospice for McHenry County. A volunteer-based hospice that formed in 1982, Hospice for McHenry County developed from the vision of five women who also realized the need for caring for those at the end of life. This merge, which also included Northwest Community Hospital’s hospice, widened HPNI’s organization’s outreach.

Over a quarter of a century, HPNI evolved from an all-volunteer group that served two patients in 1985 to a highly professional organization of over 200 employees and hundreds of volunteers. Today, Hospice & Palliative Care of Northeastern Illinois serves thousands of patients annually.Both the Pepper Family Hospice Home and Center for Care in Barrington and the Hospice Home in Woodstock provide an extended level of dignified, compassionate care and guidance to those coping with serious illness, end of life, and loss.