Village Care New York

Source: Healthcare Digital

Date :08/05/2008 06:43:11

Village Care of New York is transforming the way it offers care to a growing number of patients. Exec learns more

Written by Ian Armitage and Produced by Susan Dancewicz

Village Care of New York is a non-profit healthcare provider specializing in seniors and people living with HIV/AIDS. According to President and CEO, Arthur Webb, is it “guided” by the people it serves and its primary mission is to “provide long-term care to people with mental disabilities and chronic diseases,” he told Exec.

“We see ourselves as partners, healing people in body, mind and spirit. Our vision is to provide care that offers choice, promotes independence, respects privacy and treats individuals with dignity,” adds Webb. “We make no moral judgments and are here to really help.”

Village Care’s mission is to create a caring and supportive environment for all those it serves, including their families and partners.

Webb has been with the organization some 15 years and is delighted at the way it has grown and adapted to the changing needs of patients, as well as the way it continues to improve, especially in the modern medicinal minefield.

Patient care, it seems, is the highest priority and failure is not acceptable.

Innovative and unique

The Village Care story began 31 years ago, with the rescuing of an abandoned nursing home. Since then, it has pioneered several innovative services. It has also matured as a provider of care, stepping up its outreach and bringing new services into its core competencies.

“Village Care has been flexible and nimble in meeting the diverse needs that exist today,” says Webb. “This is particularly true when it comes to treating AIDS. Treatment advancements have brought longer lives, which presents a host of new challenges for us. It is now about offering longer term support to patients. We are consequently helping people to find housing, maintain their benefits and providing home care. We are also helping people get jobs. That is a pretty significant shift.”

While Webb is not trying to undermine the seriousness of the condition, he noted that deaths from the disease are down and that the services offered by Village Care have changed as a result.

“We are successfully meeting the needs of those with HIV/AIDS, having substantially expanded our services,” adds Webb.

Baby boomer generation

Facing an explosion in the population of older adults, Village Care is preparing for the future by examining the nature and scope of long term care services. “We recognized people are getting older and this led us to reassess the types of services and care we offer,” says Webb.

Recently, Village Care added its own pharmacy and primary care practice. Other investments include beta testing an electronic medical record for long-term care providers, with testing driven by 6N Systems, Inc., a for-profit software company that Village Care created in 2001. The company currently operates a managed care program for the frail and chronically ill and plans to purchase property for an assisted living program for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Village Care plans to spend an additional $70 million in improvements and expansion of the latter two programs over the next six years.

Changing the rules

In the future, the company plans to build a new nursing home in Manhattan, one of the first such projects on the island in the last 30 years. When finished, the $42 million project will take a new approach to nursing home care.

Sixty-five percent of the beds will provide short-term care, with the intention of turning over the beds every 30 days. The floors will be small, limited to 21 people a floor, with 56 percent of the rooms completely private.

Rather uniquely, there will be no nursing stations either, meaning the facility will feel less like a nursing home. Webb believes this commitment to innovation helps Village Care earn its reputation.

Village Care has dramatically shifted its geriatric program too, focusing on offerings that are home and community based – creating an array of new assisted living services.

“We have two assisted living programs, one for people with severe dementia and a new program for people living with AIDS. Assisted living is being used in a number of parts of the country, helping individuals who don’t need a nursing home but can’t necessarily live independently,” says Webb. “They need some support with the activities of daily living, maybe some assistance with their clothing, maybe their eating, and maybe some of their mobility issues. It’s really very cost-effective.”

Exciting times

Webb is very excited about the future, but, he says, “to be honest the future for the healthcare industry across the country is very problematic.” Indeed, Governments on all levels are proposing and implementing very severe cost containment strategies, and, of course, the population is getting very old.

“With the baby-boomers, I don’t think our country is prepared to respond to that demand,” explains Webb. “I’m hopeful about Village Care, but in terms of the larger set of social issues facing our country, I’m not really so sanguine that we have a plan to deal with these issues.”

According to Webb, a further area of development for Village Care is the “development of an insurance product for individuals with chronic illness.” Such a development would give Village Care the freedom to offer services that would otherwise not be allowed.

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Village Care of New York