Service Worthy of A Story - Fulfilling High Flying Dreams!

The epic plane ride

Daniel McGinn loves his job at Homestead Village; he drives for our Home Care Agency.  Dan sees it as an opportunity to give back and bring joy to other people.  So it is not surprising that when Dan engaged in conversation with one of our residents and asked him if there is anything that he misses or would like to experience again, his question was not just posed to pass the time.  Dan wanted to make a difference.  He wanted to bless this individual with his greatest desire!  What was the response? Our elder stated that more than anything he missed flying.  Well that put Dan on a mission.  Less than two weeks later our resident was soaring over Lancaster County.

Dan McGinn

Dan and Co-Worker Kathy Noll (with the support of Homestead Village leadership) secretly arranged to make this dream come true!  “What if” became “Why Not!” and “Why Not” became “Let’s Go!”  Dan remembers.  

On Saturday, February 18^th, Dan picked our elder up for a morning drive. At 10:30 am, the pair arrived at Lancaster county airport to reveal the surprise.  Local Pilot John Brubaker welcomed them at the Aerotech hangar.    Homestead Village Social worker Lisa Zimmerman also attended, and enjoyed the plane ride as well.   What a tremendous

Dan McGinn and Pilot John Brubaker

story of blessing other people.  Asking the right question and then going a few extra steps provided a truly amazing opportunity for one of our elders.  Daniel McGinn exemplifies the mission and vision of Homestead Village.

Service Worthy of a Story - Triple J Success!

Recently our personal care home administrator, Tawana Winder Nock shared this story: 

"I have a story I wanted to share with our Homestead family.  One of our Supportive Services residents goes to the Plow & Pineapple every day for breakfast.  A couple of weeks ago she was unable to articulate what she wanted.  She could only describe it.  Our wonderful Dining Services team member, Janelle Rineer, figured out what our resident wanted by the resident’s description.  After consulting with Jimmy Martens, Dining Services Assistant Manager, Jimmy talked to our Supportive Services leadership about the fact that it is hard for some of our residents with cognitive decline to order their food because they can’t read anymore or understand what they are reading.  

JoAnn Gillis, Supportive Services Assessment Coordinator, suggested that Jimmy make a picture menu for residents with this need. Jimmy came up with the menu right away. This is a perfect example of team work between departments.  There was a problem and immediately our staff went to work to solve it!  Kuddos to JoAnn Gillis, Jimmy Martens and Janelle Rineer."

Note, this is the second in an ongoing series of meaningful stories, and we have already come up with a new name to describe them.  Meaningful Stories will now be known as Service Worthy of a Story.

Meaningful Stories - Denise Goss

Exceptional Team Member, Denise Goss 

A few weeks ago, I was stopped in the hallway by an apartment resident who wanted to tell me a story.  A couple days earlier she was ill and transported by ambulance to the emergency room.  She has no family in the area; so she knew she would be alone for however long her hospital stay lasted. About 10:30 PM that night, a nurse came into her ER Room and told her that she had a visitor.  Since she had no family, our resident did not know who could possibly be visiting that late at night, in the ER, in the city.  A few minutes later in walked Denise Goss, one of our many fine evening receptionists at Homestead Village.  Denise decided at 10 PM at the end of her shift that she needed to check on our resident and keep her company.  Our resident told Denise that she did not need to stay and that she should go home; but Denise gently made it clear that she planned to stay with her until she was discharged or admitted to the hospital.

That, my friends, is caring. That is the essence of a compassionate community. That is love.  We are privileged to work with Denise.

HVP Wellness Blog

Wellness.  Doesn't that sound really good?  Yet so often we make choices for no good reason to do the opposite of wellness.  The purpose of the HV Wellness Facebook page and this blog is to make wellness fun and desirable.  I hope you will make this page a regular part of your browsing habits.

So if you look back through the previous posts on this blog, they were focused on what was happening at Homestead Village.  About six months ago, my Homestead Blog moved to the Homestead Village website to generate more web traffic on our website.  This blog has been sitting mostly dormant since that time.  Now it will transform into a Wellness Blog for Homestead Village staff members and anyone else who wants to like our wellness page. Tune in every few days for new wellness ideas and tips.

This blog will also be the home of "Meaningful Stories."  "Meaningful Stories" is what we are calling exceptional team behavior.  In my opinion, Meaningful Stories are as much about emotional wellness as running a 5k is about physical wellness.

While you can find this blog here at Blogger.com, it will always be linked to the HV Wellness Facebook page.  All staff should join the HV Wellness page to stay abreast of wellness opportunities as well as other great staff happenings!

Living the Mission

Homestead's mission is simply, "Enhancing independence and dignity as together we create a compassionate community."  There are many ways the staff of Homestead Village can live the mission.  From out attitude to our willingly providing excellent service, Homestead Village staff bring the mission to life.

Not very many people like to get shots!  About five years ago, we took a closer look at our staff flu shot participation.  The Department of Health, the CDC and leading medical journals were emphasizing that the best way to keep influenza from spreading through retirement communities was to increase staff member participation.  Unfortunately only about 70% of Homestead Village staff were getting the flu shot even though it was a no charge benefit of working at Homestead Village.

Four years ago as flu season loomed, we took a new approach, pointing out that if employees truly believed our mission, then they would happily get the flu shot, because doing so might save a resident's life.  It took some coaching and encouraging; but 100% of Homestead Village's staff members were immunized.

The following year 100% of staff were immunized again.  Last year, it happened again.  With the arrival of flu season this year we can announce that for the fourth straight year 100% of Homestead Village's staff have once again received the flu shot.  Four straight years with 100% compliance. That is a record that very few companies can boast.  It is a record that directly relates to our staff members' commitment to our mission and to our residents.  It is a very tangible way for our staff to show they care.

The best way the Homestead Village family can honor the staff's commitment is for every resident and every visitor to Homestead Village to get the flu shot as soon as possible.  Flu is a very dangerous disease resulting in many deaths every year.  The best way to keep the flu out of Homestead Village is for every member of our community to get the flu shot.  The other key is not to visit if you are feeling under the weather.  Coughing, runny nose and fever could be signs of the flu.  Please do not enter our building if you have any of those symptoms.  A visit could have tragic consequences!

If you do not get the flu shot, we ask that you use the hand sanitizer at each entrance and wear a mask during your visit.  Thank you for helping to keep Homestead Village healthy and flu free this year!

Two years with our vision - how are we doing?

At Homestead Village, our creeds are not just words for brochures and picture frames. We take them at their word and focus our efforts on fulfilling them every day.  Approximately two years ago, the Homestead Village Board of Directors approved a new vision statement.

Our vision statement is really two separate statements.  The first sentence IS the vision, "To serve all who come into our community." How? With genuine and remarkable kindness, respect and skill.  So our goal is very clear.  To achieve it requires every employee to be engaged and focused every minute of every day.  We must improve our hiring, our training, our orientation, our leadership,  and our support of each employee if we hope to achieve such a high level of service.

The second sentence provides further clarification.  Our service should be individualized.  In other words, we should learn your preferences and deliver them.  Our service should be continually improving.  This includes new programs and services; but most importantly improving our personal service.  Our service is more than the things we do for one another here at Homestead Village.  In reality, the Homestead Village community can only be great if it is giving to others, It is better to give than to receive and a big part of our focus must be helping our friends and neighbors both here in Lancaster and around the world.   Our vision ends with a focus on wellness.  True service seeks the best for the person being served.  There is no better service than helping people to be as well as possible, including physical, emotional and spiritual wellness.  We achieve that with the programs and services we offer you on a daily basis.

It is our hope that you experience the promises of this vision statement each and every day.

Homestead Village Health Care - What You Need When You Need It

Whether it is called a Continuing Care Retirement Community or a Life Plan Community, one of the main reasons individuals choose communities like Homestead Village is the availability of health care when it is needed.  The vast majority of Homestead Village residents move to Homestead Village residential living neighborhoods - the
Apartments, Cottages, Villa Court Villas, The Mews or The Farmstead.  When more services are needed, Homestead Village is ready to assist.  Our best means of helping residents stay independent is our home care service, Homestead Village Home Care.  With it we can provide as little as one hour of service or as much as needed.

At some point in their stay most residents see the benefits of a move to our apartments as we can provide round the clock services through our personal care program in a setting that also offers easy access to all of our other services under one roof.  Life in the apartments is very convenient and truly enhances independence with the new European bathrooms and updated kitchens.
 
If memory support services are needed, they are available in both Gelhard House (personal care) and Young House (nursing care).  Gelhard House features 13 private rooms and Young House offers nine rooms and accommodations for fifteen residents.

If short-term rehabilitation is required before a return to home, it is available in Radcliffe House and Fickes House with our therapy partner, Genesis Rehabilitation.  Radcliffe House serves 21 residents in 7 private and 7 semi-private rooms.  Fickes House servers 22 residents. Historically, Medicare and Medicaid services can only be accessed in a nursing home such as the Apostles Center for Care.  Medicare is health care insurance that pays for skilled nursing or therapy services for a short time - usually about three or four weeks up to a maximum of 100 days.  Medicaid pays for services in a nursing home when a resident has exhausted their financial resources.  Medicaid does not pay enough to cover the cost of health services provided at Homestead Village and thus every resident on Medicaid is subsidized through our endowment and the fact that Homestead Village is a charitable, non-profit organization.

With our many health care services, Homestead Village can meet your need wherever you are while at the same time providing a high quality of life with enriching activities, caring neighbors and dedicated staff members creating a compassionate community.