St. Joseph Residence is celebrating 50 years of service in the New London community and as a way to continue enhancing their services as a primary elder care provider, after careful evaluation, they’ve decided to renovate their current skilled nursing facility.
The project includes renovation and some new construction at its current location on the corner of Division St. and E. Beckert Rd., which aims to meet the needs of the rapidly changing aging population and other workforce challenges.
“What I am very excited about is all of our rooms will be private rooms with private bathrooms,” explained St. Joseph Executive Director Gidget Blank. “We are really dividing up our home in many smaller communities, which will allow a more home and family-like atmosphere and really give our residents a quality of life that creates that family and that love.”
One of the most notable additions from the renovations will be an increased focus on memory care, an area that St. Joseph felt was missing in the area.
“Dementia and Alzheimer’s is a growing illness and not an illness at this time that there’s a cure for,” Blank said. “We are very proud to say that we are leading the way in the community to provide dedicated services for these folks.”
Among other additions to St. Joseph includes a 10-bed short term rehabilitation unit, a new therapy gym on the Northeast side, as well as a 12-bed addition on the Southeast side of the building.
“That’s for folks who go to the hospital, but still need that recovery time to recover from that surgery or that illness and maybe they’re not quite ready to go home with a home health nurse yet,” Blank said of the planned rehab center.
While construction is ongoing, St. Joseph’s will be reducing the licensed skilled nursing facility beds to 50, moving all of the skilled beds to the second floor. Although they use the term “reducing,” they say still plan to serve the same number of residents as they currently do, however at this time, long-term admissions are being limited.
As construction as already started, there’s a lot of support from around the community.
“St. Joe’s leadership team, board of directors and staff have long been an integral part of the New London community, and we certainly in the New London area welcome the plans for this campus, as it will serve and meet the needs of the New London area for many years to come,” said New London Mayor Gary Henke.
The groundbreaking ceremony was followed by a luncheon for those in attendance. The project is expected to take between 12-18 months and they’re hoping to have an estimated completion date of September 2018.
