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.

One Year with the PRC

It was just last fall that we began holding events in the newly acquired Performance and Recreation Center (PRC) at Homestead Village.  We can look back over the first year with satisfaction that the acquisition was an unqualified success.  With its soaring ceiling and beautiful details the former Parish Resource Center building is an architectural gem.  As a life enrichment and activities center, the building offers tremendous flexibility.  Accommodating over 200 for dinners, lectures, concerts and other functions, the PRC is a spacious addition meeting Homestead Village's life enrichment needs.

Since acquiring the building in late 2013, Homestead Village has purchased new furniture, banquet chairs and tables and added wireless internet and a full audio visual system.  The former receptionist area and serving kitchen has been transformed into a meeting room and the former craft room is a serving kitchen.  The kitchen is about to be expanded and renovated with updated equipment and full dish washing capability as well as a separate table and chair storage facility.  The uses and benefits of the PRC building will surely multiply in 2015!

Hempfield High School Symphony Strings play for the Homestead Village Veteran's Breakfast on November 11, 2014

An Exciting Fall at Homestead Village

Summer is nearly over, our grandchildren and children are back in school and Homestead Village is gearing up to move forward with two major apartment projects that will change our community significantly. 

Lynn Godshall

First on the agenda is the long awaited first floor renovation.  Work will begin on this project early fall and will include all new carpet, paint, furniture and lighting in the Southwest corridor.  Lynn Godshall, of Godshall Commercial Interiors is the designer and her firm also created the interior design for
the Apostles Center, Gelhard House and the newly refurbished dining room.

Our second major project will be creating areas of refuge in each of the apartment building stairwells which will allow residents on the second floor of the apartment building to end their fire drill evacuation in the stairwell.  This will allow new residents to move to second floor apartments and also permit existing Homestead residents to stay in their second floor apartments, thus extending our aging in place philosophy.

These projects will have a major impact on both our atmosphere and our quality of care.

The Famous Quotes of Henry Ford

The Ford Motor Company is in its eleventh decade of operation and has never been more profitable or built better automobiles.  While it has gone through many decades of mediocrity, it began as perhaps the most successful industrial powerhouse at the beginning of the twentieth century.  Much of that credit goes to its iconic founder Henry Ford.  Henry Ford made very profound, yet simple quotes.  The quotes apply to business, to communities, to churches, to individuals or teams.  Here are some of them:

Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.

Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again.

If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care  of itself.

It is failure that is easy. Success is always hard.

You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.

Whether you think you can or think you can't, you're right.

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

Thinking is the hardest work there is which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.  Anyone who keeps learning stays young.  The greatest thing inn life is to keep your mind young.

We can still learn a lot from this icon of the last century.  His wisdom is timeless.

Please Welcome Karen Pastrana, Development & Community Relations Manager

We are pleased to welcome Karen Pastrana to a newly created position at Homestead Village, Development and Community Relations Manager.  Karen will be responsible for a wide variety of duties at Homestead Village, including overseeing and ensuring the successful of our development program, public relations, volunteer recruitment, assisting with marketing and managing the use of the PRC building by outside organizations and individuals.

Karen has a wealth of experience, having owned her own home care agency and worked for both Armstrong and The Jay Group.  Karen has more than two decades of corporate leadership experience and owned her own business for 4 years.  Please welcome Karen to Homestead Village