Homestead Village Home Care Making A Difference

Homestead Village's mission is to enhance the independence and dignity of each person we serve.   We fulfill this mission every day throughout Homestead Village, providing assistance to those who need or desire such services.  In the Apostle Center we provide five star staffing every day.  Our staffing is just as strong in our memory support areas, including both nursing and life enrichment.  We delight in serving supportive services residents in their apartments, allowing them to enjoy their home as long as possible.

The last piece of our caring puzzle is our home care agency.  Homestead Village Home Care provides housekeeping, laundry, dining services and nursing in our cottages, Villa Court and The Mews.  Homestead Village Home Care also serves the surrounding community, providing assistance to older adults in nearby neighborhoods.  Our home care is led by a team of dedicated and capable individuals.  Homestead's Executive Director, Carol Carter, oversees the Home Care Agency.  Home Care has been the special project of Carol Carter who created the agency and has overseen its growth since the beginning. The day to day operations are handled by Catherine "Kit" Reese.  Kit joined the Homestead Village team last year and supervises, hires and schedules the home care team members.  Kit has over 25 years of home care experience and comments that she has never worked in a more friendly environment.  She enjoys getting to know the residents and has been surprised by how interested the residents were in her.  Of course a key home care team member is our Homestead Village MVP, Kathy Bartels, who is featured in this issue.  Carol,  Kit and Kathy, as well as are many other fine home care team members, embody the mission and vision of Homestead Village.  Our goal and desire is to bring professional, quality and timely service to your home if and when you need it.

Springtime at Homestead Village - so much to see and do.

We experience beautiful seasons in Lancaster County and there is endless beauty around Homestead Village in April and May.

Homestead Staff running in  Dorwart Park
and the Lancaster County Conservancy

A short trip in any direction opens up a host of scenic opportunities.
To the north is Noel Dorwart Park (Mr. Dorwart was a beloved member of the Homestead Village community) and the Lancaster County Conservancy. Together they form a delightful place to hike, run, walk your dog or just enjoy nature. Our employee Couch to 5K participants have spent hours running the trails in these parks and it is a favorite destination!  To our east is Conestoga House and gardens, the beautiful homes along Marietta Avenue, Franklin & Marshall College, Buchanan Park, the North Museum and all of historic downtown Lancaster.  There are an endless number of places to explore, hike and visit.

Franklin and Marshall College

Conestoga House and Gardens

Historic Lime Spring Farm

Directly to our west is historic Lime Spring Farm and its beautiful buildings, currently being re purposed as a small village hub with recreation facilities, restaurants, walking paths and a Bed and Breakfast.

Finally directly south is our own
Rader Park, a ministry of Church of the Apostles, Rader Park has picnic areas, walking trails, a stocked pond, a scenic creek, organic gardens, and many recreational and educational activities,

Downtown Lancaster

Homestead Village is truly located in the center of a very active and vibrant area to live, work and play.

Rader Park

Rader Park

Plow and Pineapple Evokes Heritage and Delicious, Nutritious Dining.

by Susan Doyle and Douglas Motter

In colonial times, The White Swan Hotel stood at the southeast corner of the square in the heart of Lancaster City.  When few were literate and news came by word-of-mouth, the hotel, marked with the image of a white swan, was a public house where travelers could find hospitality and locals could stop to catch up on the latest news.  Other Lancaster taverns, identified by signs hanging overhead from decorative brackets, included The Golden Lamb, The Conestoga Wagon, The Bunch of Grapes, and more.

Today, businesses continue to use symbols - or logos - that come to represent their organizations. Early in the history of Homestead Village, our logo was a stylized horse-drawn plow.  Long-time residents will remember the history that led to using that image.  Over 38 years ago, when Church of the Apostles broke ground for a new church building, congregants themselves pulled an antique plow through the earth.  That plow, donated by former Homestead Village resident, the late Martha Stoner, still stands in front of the church. 

The plow became our first logo in honor of the church’s role in the founding of Homestead Village. However, those who were unfamiliar with the farm-based heritage of our community had difficulty recognizing the image of the plow.  Since Homestead Village came to be recognized for its warm and friendly atmosphere, the pineapple - known as a symbol of welcome and hospitality - was incorporated into the logo, alternating with the plow in a stylish banner or border.  As the personality of Homestead Village evolved, so did its logo, with the pineapple today solely representing “enhanced senior living.” 

Plow and Pineapple has been chosen as the new name for our dining room by the organization’s leadership team, after a contest in which the Homestead Village community submitted dozens of names.  While there were many excellent suggestions, Plow and Pineapple met the unique criteria we desired.  The plow suggests the earth from which our food derives, as the pineapple symbolizes the bounty of our dining room.  The contributor of the name wishes to remain anonymous with the reminder that the space will always be where we come together for good food and good fellowship. 

In addition to honoring our past and present, the Plow & Pineapple also pays homage to the quality food we serve.  Fresh fruits and vegetables abound and wherever possible, they are sourced from our local farms.  Our new name reflects our promise to provide great food every day – farm fresh; natural; focused on health and wellness.

Plow and Pineapple will be represented with two distinct works of art.  The first will be the “pub” sign hanging outside the dining room.  It features the actual Homestead Village logos used throughout the decades.  The second artwork is a more artistic take on the name.  It will hang on the formal wall, inviting all to enter and enjoy a great dining experience.

Both versions capture the unique history of Homestead Village and unique dining opportunities our community offers.  

2015 Changes Will Reshape Homestead Village

Better electronic data utilization, safer buildings, more beautiful surroundings, more private accommodations, a new memory support house, expanded therapy space, and a covered entry are just a few of the new and improved experiences at Homestead Village in 2015.

April 1st, Homestead Village will begin our partnership with Phoebe Services Pharmacy and we will roll out electronic medication administration.  This is a significant milestone on our journey toward a completely electronic health record.  Not only will electronic medication administration provide a safer and more efficient system for passing medications, it will also bring all physician orders and notes into the electronic record where our nurses and therapists can better access and utilize them.

The apartment building renovation project jumped into high gear with the renovations of the common areas in full swing.  This project will be completed by the end of April and will result in a more beautiful Homestead Village featuring new carpet, paint, lighting, furniture and artwork along with updated lounges and lobbies.  Together with the renovated kitchens and bathrooms in the apartments, these improvements will make our apartment building a showplace of "aging in place" living.

New Two Story Stairwell will feature updated stone and siding facade

Another significant apartment building improvement is the "area of refuge" additions in each stairwell.  These changes to our emergency exits will facilitate our frail residents' ability to continue living in the apartment building and creates a safer environment for every resident, staff member and visitor.

Homestead Village's Apostles Center for Care, our skilled nursing residence, will be expanded with more private rooms and a new memory support house, Young House.  In addition, the Apostles Center therapy room will be doubled in size and a covered entrance will be provided that will also serve visitors to the dining room and Glasford Room.

Everywhere you look, great changes are happening at Homestead Village.

Living Our Vision - Unsung Heros at Homestead

The definition of a hero according to Merriam-Webster is a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities; a person who is greatly admired.  There are so many heroes behind the scenes that make Homestead Village a success.  Sometimes we take their contributions for granted.  It is probably impossible to identify all of these key individuals; but let's try.

In the midst of winter we need to start with our environmental services department who drop all of their other work to move snow and keep our community safe and operating.  Not only do they keep the roads clear and passable, they clear community sidewalks, parking lots, and individual home driveways and walkways.  Then they go a step further and clean off the snow from resident cars parked outside the apartment building.  Their conscientiousness and diligent work is remarkable.

Our next heroes are the resident volunteers who serve all around the community, providing very important functions.  Think of the volunteers who distribute internal mail to the cottages, Villa Court and The Mews and also help sort apartment, personal care and nursing home mail. We also need to remember all of the residents who volunteer on resident committees, performing a critical role to help make Homestead Village a better place to live and work.  Those committees give valuable feedback, solve problems and provide leadership and direction.  Residents volunteer in the gift shop, the store , the library and on many fund raising and other task forces. Volunteers in the resident wood shop help out many in the community and the shop was even expanded on two separate occasions by resident volunteers.

Woodshop Open House - Not only do resident wood shop volunteers
help the Homestead community, residents volunteered to construct
and expand the wood shop.

Many residents are extremely generous with their contributions to the Employee Appreciation Fund, which has such a positive impact on our staff members.  There are many other similar, beneficial activities that our residents and other stakeholders contribute to the quality of life at Homestead Village.

Then there are the countless acts of kindness our residents and staff perform on a daily basis to help those around them.  All of these examples point to the fact that members of the Homestead Village community practice our vision statement every day:

To serve all who come into our community with genuine and remarkable kindness, respect, and skill.  Our service is based on the hallmarks of individuality, continual improvement, engagement in the broader community, and commitment to complete wellness.

New Pharmacy Will Enable Electronic Medication Administration

Last month, Homestead Village announced a major change in therapy providers as Select Medical, a sister company to NovaCare will take over the therapy services in the Apostles Center for Care.  The goal is to create a high quality, unified, efficient and effective therapy service building on the corporate relationship between NovaCare and Select Medical.  The transition is going well as Select Medical has selected most of its therapists and will begin service February 1, 2015.  Many familiar faces will remain as a number of Genesis therapists have decided to stay with us and work for Select Medical.

One year ago, Homestead Village implemented a state of the art electronic health record, PointClickCare.  The benefits of electronic record keeping are too numerous to list; but the greatest benefits are enhanced communication and more efficient record keeping.  All of the benefits lead to better quality care!  The last, major piece of the electronic health record to be implemented is the electronic administration of medications.  Rather than the current outdated method of documenting on paper, the new electronic charting method helps to identify the resident and the medications and tracks all aspects of the process, leading to less errors and better outcomes.


To implement eMAR (electronic medication administration record-keeping), Homestead Village will be partnering with a state of the art company, Phoebe Services Pharmacy.  Phoebe Services Pharmacy was one of the early test pharmacies for PointClickCare and as such has a wealth of knowledge and experience with PointClickCare.  Phoebe also has a team of trainers on their staff to ensure the best possible implementation of the eMAR system.  In addition Phoebe offers both census integration and orders integration with PointClickCare.  Orders integration is one of the other critical benefits of switching to an eMAR system.  It means the integration of physician orders into the PointClickCare system.  Much like the medication administration records, physician orders are currently printed separately by the pharmacy and only exist in paper form.  Now physician orders will be fully integrated into the electronic health record.

Phoebe Services Pharmacy has a great customer service culture and will provide our residents and their families with great service and consultation, especially when it comes to determining which formulary and which Medicare Part D plan is best for you.  Phoebe Services Pharmacy is a subsidiary of Phoebe Ministries, a high quality, non-profit, charitable, senior living organization based in Allentown, Pennsylvania.  Homestead Village will receive outstanding service from Phoebe Services' pharmacy location in East Petersburg, just a few minutes from our door!

Homestead Village Focuses on Unified Therapy Services

For nearly twenty years, NovaCare (formerly Drevna Papson) has been a tremendous partner to Homestead Village, helping to fund  both the therapy pool and the fitness area through their lease payments.  Countless Homestead Village residents have used their outpatient therapy services and overwhelmingly the reports are positive that NovaCare provides outstanding rehabilitation services.

Likewise for the past fourteen years, Genesis Rehabilitation has been providing excellent nursing home therapy services in the Apostles Center for Care.  Homestead Village has been blessed to partner with two outstanding organizations, both of whom have benefited our residents.

 

One thing has been missing though - coordination of services.  The downside to having two separate companies operating the therapy services at Homestead Village is the fact that they are competitors and cannot build a seamless, integrated, high quality therapy program.  Earlier this year we began the conversation with both companies in order to determine the best course of action.  It quickly became clear that the successful outpatient track record of NovaCare in Lancaster County made the decision a no-brainer.  NovaCare has a large clientele and relationships with many orthopedic practices.

NovaCare is a division of Select Medical based in Mechanicsburg PA.  Select operates NovaCare outpatient clinics like ours, rehabilitation hospitals such as the new Penn State Hershey Rehabilitation Hospital and skilled nursing rehabilitation services under the name Select Medical.  Select will begin providing therapy services in the Apostles Center for Care February 1, 2015.  Our long relationship with Genesis is coming to an end; but Genesis has once again proven they are a quality company as they have committed to a smooth, professional transition.

The new Select Rehabilitation relationship will greatly improve the coordination of services in both gyms with nearly all independent living residents using the downstairs clinic.  Apartment residents who desire will still be able to receive services in the Apostles Center gym.  We are looking forward to an even stronger, more successful therapy program with this new, strengthened partnership with Select Medical.