What do you think of this setup? Benefis looks to the future with nursing home care | greatfallstribune.com | Great Falls Tribune
Traditional nursing homes with shared rooms in an institutional hospital-like setting are a model of care that's becoming outdated.
Across the country, such facilities are being replaced with smaller cottages, where 12 to 16 residents live, each with a private room that opens to a great room with a living room, dining room and kitchen.
There are currently about three dozen such cottage nursing homes in the United States, said Frank Soltys, executive director of senior services at Benefis Health System, and Benefis hopes to soon add itself to that list.
Benefis currently runs an extended care center, or nursing home, located to the south of its main east campus building. It was built in the 1980s.
"This is a nice facility but it's a traditional model of care," said Amy Astin, spokeswoman for Benefis.
"The model's changed and we need to change with it," Soltys said.
In the coming year Benefis will be doing a marketing study and determining the cost for a cottage-type facility. Completion of the project is probably three to four years out, Soltys said. Benefis administrators haven't decided what the current extended care center will be used for once the new center is built.
Along with the cottage-style nursing home, Benefis is looking at creating an entire continued-care retirement community. It would include independent living, assisted living and nursing care, allowing people to "age in place," rather than moving from facility to facility as their needs for services increase, Soltys said.
Benefis owns about 60 acres of land south of its east campus where the community would be built.
Cottage-style nursing homes, or "green homes" as they're called in the industry for the green space between the individual cottages, got their start in a Methodist retirement community in Mississippi.
The idea is to make the cottages very residential rather than institutional.
Residents have private bedrooms and bathrooms that they're free to decorate any way they like. They share common space with all the other residents in their cottage. Meals are served family style and the staff eats with the residents.
The same staff is always assigned to the same cottage, which allows residents to get to know the staff and vice versa, Soltys said. Not only does that benefit the residents, but it helps staff become more attached to the people under their care and can greatly reduce turnover.
The cottages would be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week and would offer the same level of care as a nursing home.
Sounds more like assisted living to me.
Traditional nursing homes with shared rooms in an institutional hospital-like setting are a model of care that's becoming outdated.
Across the country, such facilities are being replaced with smaller cottages, where 12 to 16 residents live, each with a private room that opens to a great room with a living room, dining room and kitchen.
There are currently about three dozen such cottage nursing homes in the United States, said Frank Soltys, executive director of senior services at Benefis Health System, and Benefis hopes to soon add itself to that list.
Benefis currently runs an extended care center, or nursing home, located to the south of its main east campus building. It was built in the 1980s.
"This is a nice facility but it's a traditional model of care," said Amy Astin, spokeswoman for Benefis.
"The model's changed and we need to change with it," Soltys said.
In the coming year Benefis will be doing a marketing study and determining the cost for a cottage-type facility. Completion of the project is probably three to four years out, Soltys said. Benefis administrators haven't decided what the current extended care center will be used for once the new center is built.
Along with the cottage-style nursing home, Benefis is looking at creating an entire continued-care retirement community. It would include independent living, assisted living and nursing care, allowing people to "age in place," rather than moving from facility to facility as their needs for services increase, Soltys said.
Benefis owns about 60 acres of land south of its east campus where the community would be built.
Cottage-style nursing homes, or "green homes" as they're called in the industry for the green space between the individual cottages, got their start in a Methodist retirement community in Mississippi.
The idea is to make the cottages very residential rather than institutional.
Residents have private bedrooms and bathrooms that they're free to decorate any way they like. They share common space with all the other residents in their cottage. Meals are served family style and the staff eats with the residents.
The same staff is always assigned to the same cottage, which allows residents to get to know the staff and vice versa, Soltys said. Not only does that benefit the residents, but it helps staff become more attached to the people under their care and can greatly reduce turnover.
The cottages would be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week and would offer the same level of care as a nursing home.
Sounds more like assisted living to me.