‘They can’t believe it’: Centre Care opens $45M long-term care facility to grateful residents
Centre Crest resident Charlie Myers had one thought when he pulled up Wednesday to his new long-term care home, a $45 million state-of-the-art facility tucked into College Township.
“Wow,” he remembered saying to himself. “Beautiful.”
All of Centre Crest’s residents ditched their 82-year-old building Wednesday and were transferred, two by two, to their new 240-bed home about a 15-minute drive away. Some officials boasted that the new nonprofit facility resembled a five-star hotel more than a long-term care facility — and few of the residents of the newly opened Centre Care Rehabilitation and Wellness Services tended to disagree.
Myers took the hand of the board president when he arrived, with tears in his eyes, and simply managed, “Thank you.”
“That’s what this is all about,” Centre Care Board President Betsy Boyer said. “And we saw it over and over again this morning, with residents coming in, looking and going, ‘Wow.’”
Changes were plentiful, both big and small, at the picturesque 30-acre site on Persia Road. Hallways were wider, outdoor space quadrupled, the number of gardens doubled to four, and each of the multiple dining areas all had access to the outside — whether it was an outdoor patio on the ground floor or balconies on the upper floors.
“It’s still sinking in about all the new things here,” said Myers, the council president for the facility’s roughly 130 current residents. “It’s amazing to see the way it turned out.”
Myers was ecstatic over the fact he now had his own bathroom, telephone and TV. (Previously, televisions were not provided at Centre Crest and some residents did not have the financial wherewithal to purchase them.) And, instead of playing cards all day, he said there’s enough space now that he might try to organize horseshoes, badminton or croquet.
Centre Care officials pointed to each room being at least 90 square feet larger, but they also preferred to focus on the bigger picture. The facility is now better equipped to care for their residents in multiple ways. Among the most significant? Centre Care now offers in-house dialysis, the first long-term care facility in the area to do so.
In the past, residents were forced to leave for 6-8 hours at a time, about three days a week, for dialysis. Now, the whole process should take about two hours — and residents don’t even have to miss most of the day’s scheduled activities.
“This has been really fulfilling,” said Alfred Jones, a board member whose wife passed away at Centre Crest. “It’s just been a great, heart-warming feeling. We worked really hard for this to come together.”
Plans for the new facility were first announced in July 2017, and ground broke for construction in October 2018. The building was initially scheduled to open in November 2020 but, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, instead opened Wednesday.
The 135,000-square-foot building with a stone facade featured so many new and/or improved characteristics that it was difficult for residents to notice them all. Private rooms increased in number from four to 66; a nicer chapel can now stream services straight to residents’ TVs; a larger beauty salon features free services once a week; and several large lounge areas are now available for residents to meet with their families.
More is expected to come. Only the long-term residents moved in Wednesday; the facility also expects to open an area for short-term rehabilitation and another area for hospice. In addition, long-term residents are divided into three “neighborhoods,” or units, for those with memory issues (i.e. dementia), those in need of a little more help (i.e. COPD) and then those remaining who are able to exercise more independence.
About 98% of residents have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. After an outbreak over winter, officials now believe brighter days are ahead — and the faces of residents on Wednesday only reinforced that.
“Finally getting to bring the residents in and seeing their reactions is what the last five years has been about,” Boyer said. “It makes every hour that was spent on this so worth it.”
Added Myers, when asked what the residents thought: “They can’t believe it.”
