Legacy of Compassion

Co-Founders Dee Brazil-Dale and Michael Aureli

From our humble beginnings to the present, Arkansas Hospice – now LIfeTouch Health – has built a strong, trusted reputation throughout Arkansas focused on hard work, care and compassion. 

Our roots go back to a day in 1983. A young man named Michael Aureli wrapped his mother, who suffered from ovarian cancer, in a blanket and carried her to an emergency room, only to hear, “There is nothing more we can do for you.” Years later, Michael and his colleague Dee Brazil-Dale would go on to become the founders of Arkansas Hospice.

Our Earliest Days

With the help of other concerned citizens, Michael and Dee formed a grassroots movement focused on building a strong, nonprofit organization that would help Arkansans with life-limiting illnesses live their final days in dignity and comfort.

Those efforts resulted in Arkansas Hospice being incorporated in the state of Arkansas as a private, not-for-profit organization on January 17, 1992. It is classified federally as a 501(c)3 charitable organization.

Arkansas Hospice made history again in February 2000 when it opened the first hospice inpatient center in Arkansas in a leased wing of the Eugene Towbin Healthcare Center at Fort Roots in North Little Rock..

Faithful Leadership

As for Michael Aureli, he served as the president and chief executive officer of Arkansas Hospice from May 1995 to June 2011, when he passed away at the age of 61 as a patient of the program he helped create. Dee Brazil-Dale retired as executive director of the Arkansas Hospice Foundation and vice president of development for Arkansas Hospice in 2006.

The organization is currently led by Judith S. Wooten, who was named president and CEO of Arkansas Hospice on July 28, 2011.

Becoming LifeTouch Health

Arkansas Hospice grew from one location in North Little Rock to 10 locations that touch more than 40 counties, with a corporate office at 14 Parkstone Circle in North Little Rock. Over a 23-year history as Arkansas Hospice, our organization became the largest nonprofit hospice organization in the state.

In 2025, Arkansas Hospice changed names to LifeTouch Health to reflect newly expanded services, including personal, primary and palliative care. Same team. Same ownership. And same commitment to compassionate care. With these new services, our team now impacts even more lives, in more ways.

Key Events in Our History

1990s

  • 1992: The not-for-profit organization that will become Arkansas Hospice was incorporated in the state of Arkansas.

  • 1998: Arkansas Hospice began providing hospice care in patients’ homes, including upon hospital discharges.

2000s

  • 2000: Arkansas Hospice opened the first inpatient hospice facility in Arkansas in a leased wing of the Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center at Fort Roots in North Little Rock.

  • 2002: Michael Aureli, founding CEO of Arkansas Hospice, was named Nonprofit Executive of the Year by Arkansas Business.

  • 2004: Arkansas Hospice was named Nonprofit Organization of the Year by Arkansas Business.

  • 2007: Arkansas Hospice became the 55th hospice in the United States and England, and the only one in Arkansas, to adopt a partner hospice in Africa – Seke Rural Community Hospice in Zimbabwe.

  • 2007: Judith (Judy) Wooten, VP and COO, achieves the status of Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE)

2010s

  • 2010-2020: Arkansas Hospice’s marketing team wins a total of 28 Diamond Awards from the Arkansas Hospital Association for excellence in health care communications.

  • 2011: Michael Aureli, founding CEO of Arkansas Hospice and passionate advocate for quality end-of-life care, passed away in the care of the hospice he loved on June 28, 2011. Judy Wooten, who had served as VP and COO since 2002, was named president and CEO one month later.

  • 2013: Arkansas Hospice served the state’s first pediatric concurrent care patient.

  • 2013: Arkansas Hospice Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Kathy Jones, was named Nonprofit CFO of the Year by Arkansas Business.

  • 2013-2020: Each of Arkansas Hospice’s three Medicare certification numbers wins the Hospice Honors Elite and/or Hospice Honors awards in multiple years from HEALTHCAREfirst based on our family satisfaction scores on the Hospice Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey.

  • 2014: Judy Wooten is named chair of the Arkansas Hospital Association Metro Council.

  • 2015: Arkansas Palliative Care was formed to increase access to palliative care for seriously ill Arkansans. Palliative care is a unique specialty for patients of any age and any stage with serious illness that can be provided in conjunction with curative treatment.

  • 2015-2021: Additional resources were committed to minority outreach for the hospice benefit. A comprehensive survey in Clark and Jefferson counties was conducted in order to develop more precise and effective messaging to African American and other communities. A minority outreach coordinator was added to extend the message in community and civic forums, and several ad campaigns were developed and launched. A series of minority outreach webinars, “Black, Brown and the Challenge of Dying Well,” was launched, with CE credits available for nurses, social workers and nursing home administrators.

  • 2016: Arkansas Palliative Care launched its first inpatient palliative care consult service at Unity Health in Searcy and continues that service today.

  • 2017: Brian Bell, Arkansas Hospice VP and chief medical officer, was recruited to serve as co-chair on the Governor’s Quality of Life and Palliative Care Taskforce, as well as a member of the Arkansas POLST Committee.

  • 2018: Judy Wooten was elected president of the Hospice and Palliative Care Association of Arkansas (HPCAA), a position which she still holds. 

  • 2019: Arkansas Hospice was one of only nine inaugural hospices in the nation, and the only one in Arkansas, to achieve Level 5 in the We Honor Veterans program. We Honor Veterans (WHV) is jointly sponsored by the Veterans Administration and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization to increase access and address the special needs of veterans facing the end of life. Level 5 is the highest level WHV partners can attain.

  • 2019: Judy Wooten, Arkansas Hospice president and CEO, was elected to the board of directors of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO). 

2020s

  • 2020: Arkansas Hospice was named one of the 2020 Best Places to Work in Arkansas, by Arkansas Business.

  • 2020: Brian Bell, Arkansas Hospice VP and chief medical officer, was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

  • 2020: Judy Wooten, Arkansas Hospice president and CEO, was awarded the 2020 American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) Regent’s Award for a Senior Level Healthcare Executive for leadership and health care excellence at the state and national level.

  • 2022: Arkansas Hospice acquired First Choice Senior Care, which provides non-medical care to elderly clients in Central Arkansas.

  • 2023: Arkansas Advanced Care was formed on March 1 to create a continuum of care and provide primary care for seniors, where they live.

  • 2023: LifeTouch Hospice, a nonprofit provider based in southern Arkansas, joined the Arkansas Hospice Family of Care, which includes Arkansas Hospice, Arkansas Palliative Care, Arkansas Advanced Care and First Choice Senior Care. 

  • 2025: Brian W. Bell, MD, FAAHPM, our VP and chief medical officer, was named president and CEO for Arkansas Hospice’s Family of Care after the retirement of Judy Wooten. 

  • 2025: Dr. Brian Bell, the organization’s new president and CEO, announced that Arkansas Hospice’s Family of Care will begin a new dawn of care as LifeTouch Health in October. The news was announced on April 26 at Party at the Plaza, the Arkansas Hospice Foundation’s signature event.

To see our leadership, click here.

To read a historical look back by Co-Founder Dee Brazil-Dale, please click here.