What does one do with all the extra space when one has a nursing home built for 226 residents but it’s now licensed for just 60 beds?
Simple: You get creative and redevelop your building into a multi-use facility for a wide array of others. At least if you’re a certain group in southwest Wisconsin, that’s how you show the rest of the nation what can be done.
Kelly Kramer, the administrator of Hillview Healthcare Center in La Crosse, WI, is currently working through a $19.6 million renovation of the 85,000-square foot facility that will create a more comfortable living area for residents, a multi-generational day care center and 10 units to complement the city’s Pathways Home program that helps homeless individuals.
The bulk of the funding for the remodel – $12 million – comes from the pandemic-inspired American Rescue Plan Act with another $1 million from a US Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Project Funding grant, which was secured by Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). The rest of the funds for the remodel will come from a bond measure that Kramer says will not raise property taxes.
“The state has been hammering nursing homes to be more home-like, less institutional and less hospital-like,” she told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Friday. “We have this huge building that we wanted to demolish and build new, but the post-COVID economy was horrible. We thought, ‘What else could we do?’”
The 44-year-old Hillview is a county-run facility, which allows for broad collaboration among municipal departments such as aging, disability and human resources.
“We came together to identify where the gaps are in our community,” Kramer said. “What are the demands that are not being met? And looked at whether we could use the space in Hillview to help support those gaps.”
Officials broke ground on the resulting remodel and expansion last week.
Kramer readily acknowledged that the 10, short-stay units that will be available for individuals struggling with homelessness will not solve that overall issue. It will, however, make a difference for those people who can stay for between one and three years, she said.
When completed, the remodel will offer no access between the supported housing area and the nursing home. There also will be separate areas in the parking lots.
A separate nursing home space will be converted into a multigenerational day care that will be run by an existing, licensed day care provider. The facility will be able to accommodate infants and older children, Kramer said. On the other end of the age spectrum, she added, it will accommodate adults with mild to moderate dementia, assuming the facility can obtain state approval.
“The state regulations are difficult,” Kramer noted. “They want to separate adults and children. There are too many possible things that could go wrong, but we’re working with the state. There are a lot of benefits to bringing them together.”
Another benefit: Providing childcare in the space shared with the nursing home could help staff there who need it. Multigenerational day care is nearly unheard of, and Kramer said they found just one facility in New York as a model.
“This could help with the staffing crisis that nursing homes are facing,” Kramer added.
