Seniors looking for a one-stop shop to meet their social, physical and medicinal needs with the help of a professional, interdisciplinary team can find it in a new 15,000-square-foot Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) center.
Located behind the Village Park Office complex off St. Matthews Road, the center celebrated an open house Thursday afternoon.
'Day-to-day health care'
"It's giving us a whole new way to think about senior care that is off campus. That's important to us at The Oaks because for far too long we've been considered as 'rich white folks,' and that's not what we are. We're a ministry, and this is an excellent way for us to show this is what we're about," said the Rev. Robert Cox, chairman of The Oaks trustee board.
Beyond care provided to the elderly, the project is expected to have a healthy economic impact on the county. PACE program officials estimate about $8 million annually will come into the county. The center at full capacity is expected to employ about 70.
PACE officials say the center will manage elderly care while keeping people out of the hospital and emergency rooms. The goal of the PACE program is to keep the elderly independent in an attempt to save Medicare and Medicaid dollars.
The Oaks officials foresee the program as reducing the length of patient stay in the hospital and emergency room visits. A reduction in both would lessen the burden on hospital costs.
"We're going to be able to provide day-to-day health care for the frailest of the frail. We provide transportation to and from the center. We help people develop their independence so they can stay in their home ... rather than having to be institutionalized, and we're able to do it in a facility that is state-of-the-art," Cox said.
The Oaks PACE program will be administered under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service and Medicare Plan B.
The program is an optional benefit under CMS that focuses entirely on older people who are frail enough to meet state standards for nursing home care, yet continue to live at home.
People 55 and older who live in the service area of a PACE organization and are ce.jpgied as eligible for nursing home care qualify for the program. If a person is Medicaid-eligible or has Medicare and Medicaid, there is no cost. If the person is eligible for Medicare only, there is a fee. Individuals without Medicare or Medicaid may pay privately.
The center, where participants will visit an average of three to five times a week, includes a health clinic with an on-site physician and nurse practitioner, physical and occupational therapy facilities, and at least one common room for social and recreational activities.
An interdisciplinary team, consisting of professional and paraprofessional staff, will assesses participants' needs, develop care plans and deliver all services -- including acut care when necessary.
Bus service will be contracted through the Santee Wateree Regional Transportation Authority, which will provide all the health-care transportation needs for a PACE participant.
The Rev. James McGee, chief executive officer of The Oaks, has said that eventually the program looks to have buses allocated specifically to PACE. Each bus will carry about 15 individuals.
PACE Program Director Elaine Till said, "Transportation is important because the drivers will go into the home and bring them here. It won't just be curb-to-curb. They may have to take them to another doctor's appointment if they have that. At the end of the day, they'll take them back in their house."
In addition to medical and social services, in-home and referral services will be provided in accordance with a participant's needs.
The center will have two exam rooms and seven beds as well as office space. A small courtyard; a food preparation area; a family conference room where care plans will be discussed with participants and their families, and a quiet room with a recliner and a day bed and which will be equipped with televisions are all included at the center.
It will be open Monday through Friday. Tentative times are 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Therabands, theraballs, pulleys, stair s.jpg, a shoulder arc and parallel bars are included in the therapy room, where physical therapy assistant Cheyenne Peresich said seniors will be shaped up.
"We want to keep them as functional and independent as possible. They do go back home, and we want to make sure that their caregivers are able to take care of them as well," Peresich said. "If we can keep their strength, independence, ADLs (activities of daily living), and all their functions working right, it's just better for everybody."
Sign-ups in early '08
The open house is the first step in the much-anticipated start-up of the program.
After receiving state and federal approval to operate, PACE program sign-ups could begin as early as January, with the facility becoming operational in February 2008.
The center will be licensed to serve up to 90 patients a day. The program will be open to all qualified Orangeburg County seniors, with plans to expand to Calhoun County after about a year to a year and a half.
Boyd Chewning, a retired Methodist preacher who resides and serves as a trustee at The Oaks, said he is pleased with the facility.
"I think it's the most exciting thing you can offer to people of Orangeburg and Calhoun counties. It's got a lot of possibilities to help many people," Chewning said.
The center will receive oversight from the state Department of Health and Human Services, and the state Department of Health and Environmental Control will oversee PACE operations. The center will be managed by The Oaks and funded through CMS and Medicare Part B.
Columbia-based Structioneers Inc. constructed the PACE building. The Oaks will lease it under a 10-year renewable contract.
Pace officials say it is the only continued-care retirement community and one of 15 recipients nationwide to receive a $500,000 grant to develop PACE.
David Eikerenkoetter, a professor of gerontology at Claflin University, said he has students who intern at The Oaks and will hopefully get valuable first-hand experience in working at the burgeoning PACE center.
"The facility is just magnificent. What I see them doing now is applying some of the theory lessons that they get in the classroom to the actual work world. That's what they need, and that's what they will get," he said.T&D Staff Writer Dionne Gleaton can be reached by e-mail at dgleaton@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5534. Discuss this and other stories online at TheTandD.com. T&D Staff Writer Gene Zaleski contributed to this report.