Seasons Hospice to close hospice house, forge ahead with in-home care

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – After nearly three decades of providing on-site hospice care, Seasons Hospice announced Thursday it will close its hospice house this fall.

Seasons Hospice intends to move forward, continuing to serve patients and families with in-home hospice care.

“The shift is going away from residential care to people wanting to spend their last days in their homes with their loved ones,” said Board President Dawn Beck.

Beck cites a declining census at the hospice house especially in recent years.

The hospice house has been open since 1997 on a quiet southwest Rochester property, known for its roaming wildlife and beautiful gardens.

The development is difficult for many Seasons families to hear, including Jim Sebesta, whose mother spent her final days in the hospice house.

“Shock and very sad,” Sebesta said of his initial reaction to hearing the news. “They took care of everything out here.”

Sebesta and his family donated the property’s “labyrinth” on his mother’s behalf in 2023. It is a concrete installation, intended for people to walk through and think about their loved ones.

“Walk through a path of life and think about different things that are happening. And when you get to the end, the inner circle, it’s really not the end. It’s the beginning of the next phase of life,” Sebesta explained.

Sebesta’s family’s gift will have to find a new home as Seasons Hospice charts its own new path forward.

The decision to close comes on the heels of other recent changes at Seasons including the closure of the Center for Grief Education and Support to the public and the ceasing of efforts to reopen the Homestead Hospice House in Owatonna.

KTTC asked about how budgetary concerns played into the decision.

“There’s always financial concerns when you’re running a business,” Beck said. “And to just lay it out there, one of the reasons why we pursued the Owatonna hospice house was we thought we would be able to gain some economies of scale from that, but that we learned in a pretty short period of time is that what communities want in hospice care is shifting.”

Seasons confirms the closure of the hospice house means an elimination of certain positions. The exact number remains a bit unclear.

Seasons Hospice says it is creating new roles within its in-home hospice team.

The organization is working individually with employees to determine what’s next.

This next step for Seasons Hospice paves a path of heartache but also hope.

“Not having this physical location is something that we’ll mourn and we will miss, but it will always be part of our legacy, and we will celebrate it,” Beck said.

“I’m very sad, but I’m delighted that seasons is looking to their next chapter,” Sebesta said.

The house is scheduled to close October 10, 2025.

There will be a “commemoration of the house” event on that date.

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