State Receptive To 'Glen Haven Village' Proposal At GRC

The aging Glen Haven Home could be replaced by a new skilled care complex on the campus of the Glenwood Resource Center as early as next year if adequate funding can be secured.

The Iowa Department of Human Services is receptive to negotiating a proposal that would allow Glen Haven to lease seven cottages on the GRC campus and allow the living units to be renovated into a state-of-the-art skilled care and rehabilitative services facility.

“Glen Haven Village” would replace Glenwood’s 52-year-old nursing home at 302 6th St. with a facility designed to accommodate between 75-80 residents in need of skilled and rehabilitative care.

The “village” or “green house” concept allows residents to receive the care they require while living in a homelike setting.

“Instead of having an institutionalized building, you have homes or cottages that will handle 12-14 residents,” former Glen Haven Board member Phil Warren said. “It’s a relatively new concept in skilled care. There’s one in Lincoln (Neb.), but there are none in Iowa. It’s truly a homelike environment. It would be great for Glenwood and great for the state of Iowa.”

Warren, who played a key role in the opening of the Hospice With Heart house on the GRC campus a decade ago, said there’s no disputing the need for a new skilled care facility in Glenwood.

“Something needs to be done at Glen Haven. The residents are well cared for, but the building opened in ’64 and needs some major updating,” Warren said. “It’s kind of hard to do that in a building that is full of residents.”

Warren helped the current Glen Haven Board of Directors pitch the long-term  (50-year) lease idea to the Iowa Department of Human Services last year after initial consideration was given to purchasing the vacant Park Place building located a couple blocks north of the GRC campus. Five Star Quality Care Park Place, a skilled care and rehabilitation center for persons with physical and intellectual disabilities, served nearly 100 residents before being closed by its owners in April.

“Park Place was not a really good option because you still end up with an old institution-style building,” Warren said. “The building suffered from severe lack of maintenance and needs a lot of work.”

Larry Raabe, who sits on the Glen Haven Board of Directors, said he and his fellow board members have long recognized the need to address the condition of the current two-story Glen Haven building. The “Glen Haven Village” proposal would help the community-based, non-profit facility address those needs at a fraction of the cost it would take to build a new facility.

The renovation of the GRC living units and the replacement of equipment is expected to carry a price tag of $3 million.

“We were looking at $10-12 million to replace that facility with a new building. It’s just hard to fathom where those resources would come from,” Raabe said. “What we’re going to be able to do at the resource center with the cottages is going to be a fraction of the cost than to build from scratch.”

Raabe said at least one and possibly two of the houses would be designated exclusively for residents with “memory support” needs. Glen Haven would continue to accept Medicaid and Medicare payments.

“Almost all the private facilities like this only accept private pay,” Raabe said. “We’ll continue to accept Medicaid and Medicare.”

The “Glen Haven Village” proposal calls for Glen Haven to utilize a variety of services from GRC staff, including laundry and food service. Glen Haven employees currently performing those duties would likely be trained for other positions, such as Certified Nursing Assistants.

“There will be a need for more employees because of the number of houses,” Warren said.

Warren and Raabe stressed “Glen Haven Village” won’t become a reality without community support.

“This is a project that’s going to involve the entire community,” Raabe said. “Glen Haven is a community-owned, non-profit corporation. It’s only going to happen with the support of the entire community.

“As for a capital campaign, there’s going to need to be a fairly large group of individuals who would serve on a steering committee to really be the fundraising group,” Raabe said.

Warren said the goal is to raise at least half of the $3 million over the next several months.

“Our timeline is to start remodeling in October and be in for the first quarter of 2017,” Warren said.
In addition to leasing GRC Houses 128, 130, 132, 134, 136 and 138 (located on north end of the campus), Glen Haven would also utilize House 247 for short-term rehabilitation care and almost 5,000 square feet of space in Building 213 for administration and other support services.

Raabe said he believes Glen Haven would be a good fit for the GRC campus.

“There are facilities at the resource center that taxpayers paid for that are under utilized. If we can utilize them, the state’s seeing the benefit of bringing other healthcare type organizations up there,” Raabe said, “whether it be On With Life, Mills County Public Health or a facility like this.”