LAKE PLACID – The company that’s taken over operation of Uihlein Living Center plans to spend $5 million on renovations, offer new services and programs, and increase the number of residents at the facility to its full capacity.

Buffalo-based Elderwood officially closed Oct. 4 on its acquisition of the Old Military Road nursing home from Adirondack Health. Its new name is Elderwood of Uihlein at Lake Placid.

Residents say the change has happened without a hitch so far.

“It’s been very smooth,” said Marie Tiblis of Saranac Lake. “I don’t see much difference. Everybody’s being taken care of.”

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Transition

Adirondack Health has sold the nursing home’s operations to Elderwood’s parent company, Post Acute Partners, for $600,000. Adirondack Health still owns the building and property, leasing it to Post Acute Partners, which operates nursing homes, assisted living, independent living and other health-care facilities in Western New York and several other states.

The Lake Placid facility is one of two nursing homes Adirondack Health acquired in January 2007 from the Sisters of Mercy. The other, Mercy Living Center in Tupper Lake, will continue to be run by Adirondack Health.

Marc Walker, who had been Adirondack Health’s chief senior services officer, is now administrator of Elderwood of Uihlein. He said the hospital originally talked with Post Acute Care representatives only about providing assisted living services on the Uihlein campus, not about running the nursing home.

“Later, subsequent conversations developed into selling the operation to Post Acute, which is what we’ve worked on for the last three-and-a-half years,” he said. “They’re very attracted to the rural nature of health care here.”

“They want to make sure that access locally is continued for those rural areas,” said Anna Foy, director of business development for Elderwood Administrative Services.

As part of the deal, Elderwood has taken on all of the nursing home’s 119 employees.

“The employees all transitioned over with their same rate, same salary, seniority and some components of their benefit structure, depending on their years of service,” he said.

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Residents

The nursing home is certified by the state to have 156 beds, but it hasn’t housed that many residents in years. From 2012 and 2013, Adirondack Health downsized the facility to 80 staffed beds, primarily due to financial losses triggered by lagging Medicaid reimbursement rates.

It currently has 61 residents out of 78 possible staffed beds, but Walker said the plan is to boost its occupancy rate back up to the maximum.

“Obviously there is going to be a significant renovation to the building,” he said. “Over the next two years, there is going to be $5 million into capital and renovation. We do have the vision to do the renovation and then go back up to full capacity, which is 156. It’s in the business plan. Obviously, we have to go gradually. And as we ramp up census, we have to ramp up employees.”

Walker said there is a need for more long-term care in the region.

“I believe the demand is there,” he said. “When you look across (the North Country), there’s a lot of gaps that are not met. There’s a lot of residents, patients or community members who fall through the cracks because there’s not enough assisted living, there’s not enough independent living, and they’re traveling far from home to receive those services.”

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New programs

Elderwood plans to boost its census by providing new services and programs at Uihlein like cardiac rehabilitation, oncology, stroke therapy, adult day care and an overnight dementia care program.

“We’re also developing an (emergency room) diversion program,” Walker explained. “Let’s say you have a patient who can’t be admitted to the hospital, but it’s unsafe for them to go home. Uihlein will admit them directly, 24 hours a day, and provide the service until such time as they can be discharged safely.”

Elderwood also wants to bring in a transportation company that would serve residents of Uihlein and other people in the community, helping them get to their doctor’s appointments.

To boost referrals, Walker is planning to hire a full-time community relations coordinator to market, brand and sell Uihlein’s services to people in the Tri-Lakes.

Where will the money come from to offer these new programs and services? Uihlein is part of the Blue Line Group, a coalition of four nonprofit nursing homes, home care and hospice providers in the region that get a temporary Medicaid rate adjustment “to make sure we remain viable and stable,” Walker said.

“That will continue under Post Acute for a short-term,” Walker said. “In the meantime, Post Acute and Elderwood have a significant amount of technology they bring into the building for documentation, which leads to enhanced reimbursement. Also, because of their number of buildings, they have a better group purchasing volume than Adirondack Health did, so there’s savings from a standpoint of purchase power.”

“We have a lot of resources we can offer,” Foy said. “We can really launch programs without a particular facility feeling the effect of having to do that on their own. And we come with a lot of experience in the market. We feel we can be a value-added to the community.”

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Building plans

The renovations to Uihlein are designed to make the more-than-50-year-old facility modern and more comfortable, and to improve the quality of its staffing, Walker said.

The project would add family rooms with fireplaces, dining areas and kitchens to each of the nursing home’s 15-room clusters “to be more like you have in your own house,” Walker explained.

Renovations in another part of the building would add porches that lead to an enclosed courtyard. One of the units would house an expansion of the Uihlein’s sub-acute, or short-term, rehabilitation program from 15 beds to 30, creating private entrances to these rooms for families.

Residents of the nursing home said they’re excited about the renovations.

“I’m glad to be in on it,” Tiblis said. “It could use some modernizing.”

“I think improvement is good anywhere, and I know there’s room for improvement,” said Ruth Shult.

The renovations are scheduled to start Feb. 1, Walker said. It will take about three months per unit to complete the work in each of the facility’s four units, he explained.

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Partnerships continue

The Sisters of Mercy will continue to have a presence at Uihlein through their 10,000-square-foot convent and the Uihlein building’s chapel, Walker said.

Elderwood will also continue to partner with Adirondack Health, which plans to start work this fall on a new medical fitness center next to the nursing home. It will house all the services currently provided at its Church Street hospital: a part-time emergency room, doctors’ offices, laboratory and radiology. It would also feature a gymnasium, a 75-foot lap pool, a hydrotherapy pool and larger physical rehabilitation space.

“That’s going to be a huge advantage for resident transport, simply taking them over to the health center versus calling an ambulette, putting them in a car and taking them over to Church Street, so we’re excited about that,” Walker said.

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Shot in the arm

Beth McLaughlin, the nursing home’s activities director, said the changes made by Elderwood and its plans for the future are needed.

“I think it’s a good shot in the arm of adrenaline,” she said. “I think the plans for the expansion and where Elderwood is going, like assisted living and a possible day program, that’s what this community needs, and to have that all be in a circle with long-term care, that’s quite a feat. It’s quite exciting to be a part of it.”