Thursday, December 30, 2010

Fredericksburg Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

Fredericksburg Nursing & Rehabilitation located in the heart of the Texas hill country is a ninety bed facility featuring a broad range of services including long term, short term, post surgical and respite care.

Our dedicated staff of professionals are licensed to provide all levels of care including skilled nursing and IV therapy twenty-four hours a day. Registered Nurses are on duty seven days per week. The high ratio of staff to residents - 1 staff member for every 1.4 resident's - assures an exceptional level of care. This in addition to the average employee tenure of twelve years makes for a dedicated staff that takes pride in the care provided.

Transportation to and from physician or other medical offices is provided by the wheel chair accessible van. Hill Country Memorial Hospital is just a few blocks away.

Semi private and private rooms are available. Residents and families are encouraged to personalize their rooms with photos and favorite chairs or personal items.

Rehabilitation services, including physical and occupational evaluation and ongoing services are provided by licensed therapists and restorative aids. This includes wound care, prosthetic needs, and physical therapy designed to bring the resident to their maximum level of functioning.

Trained dietary staff plan and serve nutritional meals and three snacks per day as well as therapeutic diets as ordered by a physician under the direction of a licensed dietitian. Alternate meal choices or substitutions are offered at each meal.

Hospice care is available as well as daily or temporary twenty-four hour respite care.

Social services are provided by a Licensed Master Social Worker-Advanced Clinical Practitioner. Psychological and Psychiatric counseling services are also available.

Fredericksburg Nursing & Rehabilitation accepts residents without discrimination. Medicare, Medicaid, private pay and private insurance payments are accepted.

A busy and varied activity program administered by a Certified Activity director offers numerous daily activities. Residents enjoy around town shopping trips to stores of their choice, van rides to local points of interest, trips to the library or special community events.

In-house activities include games, bingo, parties, dominoes, exercise, movies, cookouts, discussion groups, and pet therapy. At least one "live music" group performs weekly. Local private and public school groups also present programs, plays or musical events for the residents.

For more information, please call us, or stop by for a visit.

Read more here to know us better: Skilled Nursing Care Facility Fredericksburg and Short Term Nursing Home Dallas 
 
Our address is:

1117 South Adams
Fredericksburg,TX, 78624
tel: (830) 997-4364
fax: (830) 997-3244

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Proposed assisted living change stirs anger

Tamara Pirkle skipped work Wednesday to join about 250 people crowded into a Department of Community Health public hearing.

Her sentiment was almost universal among the folks that filled the downtown Atlanta boardroom and spilled into an overflow area with video monitors and into the hallways. "Don't change the rules on assisted living facilities," Pirkle said.

A proposed rule change before the DCH would require that everyone living at an assisted living facility be able to exit the building under his or her own power during an emergency such as a fire.

Should the new rule pass, those who would need help getting out could be forced to transfer to nursing homes, which generally are more expensive and are required to have more staffers on hand.

Already, the state is backing off the proposed changes as currently written, said Doug Colburn, the DCH's director of health care facility regulation.

"At the end of the day, it won't be a rule that will put people out of an assisted living home, or put anyone out of business," he said.

"What we ultimately put forward, won't be this," he said.

More than 30,000 Georgians live in thousands of assisted living facilities across the state, according to Genia Ryan, the president of the Georgia chapter of the Assisted Living Federation of America.

The idea proposed by the DCH staff is to make assisted living facilities as safe as nursing homes, said Colburn.

Pirkle, of Sandy Springs, has a 90-year-old grandmother, Joyce Dyer, who lives at the Dogwood Forest assisted living facility in Alpharetta.

"If there's a fire alarm or such, she'd need someone to take her by the arm and direct her to an exit," Pirkle said. "They are totally capable of doing that at Dogwood. But if they say she has to do it on her own, she can't do it. We'd have to move her."

Wednesday's meeting, which lasted for more than three hours, was held to take public comment on the issue. Colburn said that, because of the public outcry about the proposed rule, DCH staffers are recommending that the board table the proposal and consider other options.

"We won't be presenting this proposal to the [DCH] board at the next meeting, but we will work to revise the [proposed] rule so it won't be construed as so restrictive," he said. "That wasn't ever our intent. We were trying to update the rules, with safety in mind."

"If our wording is imperfect, then this is just part of the process to look at what is feasible or not feasible," Colburn said.

At its Jan. 13 meeting, the board will receive a transcript of Wednesday's hearing, along with copies of the hundreds of letters and e-mails from the public about the proposed rule.

Colburn said that it will be up to the board to decide what it will do. But the staff is recommending that the proposed rule be tabled indefinitely.

Many people who spoke Wednesday asked that the board create a task force, and include on it operators of assisted living facilities, to look at any updates in the safety rules.

Lisa Marie Shekell, a DCH spokeswoman, said that there is no timeline set yet for when the board might make any decision or create a task force.

But Dennis Wester, the owner of the small assisted living facility Abundant Living in Comer, Ga., said that he can't take any chances that the board will or won't adopt the rule as it is currently proposed.

He said he intends to be at upcoming DCH meetings to make sure that the new rule isn't adopted despite the outcry.

"There's been a major lack of communication between the board and those of us in the industry," said Wester. "I don't know if the board is trying to phase out the little guys, but if they go forward [with the change], they're going to put us under."

Wester, who for the past 14 years has run a facility at his home for six elderly people, said that he and his wife work around the clock to give his clients the best care.

Columbus Nursing & Rehabilitation, L.P.

Columbus Nursing & Rehabilitation is certified by Medicare and Medicaid. Our team of health professionals is led by a licensed Administrator. A local physician serves as our Medical Director. Registered Nurses, Licensed Vocational Nurses and certified nursing assistants work together with other members of the staff to provide care at all levels of medical need, from assistance with bathing, dressing, and medications, to total personal care and skilled nursing services.

Rehabilitation therapy is a central part of our total care program. The skills of registered physical, occupational, and speech therapists are available as needed to design, monitor and evaluate individual therapy programs. Our long-term residents are motivated to improve their functional abilities and enhance their quality of life. For short-term residents, therapy helps to speed recovery, enabling residents to return to their homes in the community. Specialized therapy programs include IV therapy, short-term fracture recovery, wound care, contractual management, stoke rehabilitation, and much more.

The team at Columbus Nursing & Rehabilitation encourages residents to pursue interest and activities that allow them to maintain meaningful and fulfilling lives.

Our Alzheimer's Care Unit is a safe, secured environment that has been designed to reduce the confusion and agitation often experienced with Alzheimer's disease. Residents have easy access to enclosed outdoor courtyards with walking paths. Therapeutic activities are designed by a specially trained Activity Director to stimulate exercise, orientation,and positive interaction.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Applying for Medicaid

HOW TO APPLY FOR MEDICAID

MEDICAID AT A GLANCE
2010 REFERENCE GUIDE

For the applicant:

Maximum Allowable Monthly Income (for an individual)……$2022.00
Maximum Allowable Countable (Couples) Resources………………......$3000.00

Income:
  1. Social Security Check
  2. Pensions
  3. Retirement
Resources:
  1. Cash in Savings Account
  2. Cash in Checking Account
  3. Any Stocks, CD, Bonds
  4. Any cash value on Burial Policies, Life Insurance Policies        
                                         Requirements
                                          
  1. Need to meet Medical Necessity to qualify for assistance from the state
  2. Need to meet Financial to qualify for assistance from the state
  3. Can take up to 45 days to receive an answer from the state
  4. Resident will need to give up their social security check and all their income to facility to help to contribute towards their care
  5. Resident is allowed to keep $60.00 out of their income for their personal needs
  6. Complete a Medicaid application with TDHS/DADS (see our Business Office)
  7. Must remain in the facility for 30 consecutive days (hospital day also count)
  8. Meet with TDHS/DADS case worker as directed
THE STATE DETERMINES WHETHER RESIDENT WILL QUALIFY

Capital Senior Living Corporation Announces a Four Community Lease Transaction

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Capital Senior Living Corporation (the "Company") (NYSE:CSU), one of the country’s largest operators of senior living communities, announced today that joint ventures in which it holds a five percent partnership interest, have entered into an agreement to sell four senior living communities (the "Spring Meadows Communities") to Health Care REIT, Inc. (NYSE:HCN). Upon closing the transaction, anticipated in the first quarter of 2011, the Company will lease the communities from HCN. The Company currently manages the Spring Meadows Communities under long-term management agreements.


Highlights of this transaction include:

  • Sales proceeds, including incentive distributions, total approximately $17.0 million, compared to original investment of $1.3 million.
  • Increases annual revenue by $26.0 million.
  • Adds $12.2 million of EBITDAR.
  • Additional CFFO of $0.7 million, or $0.03 per share.
  • Incremental earnings of $1.9 million, or $0.07 per share.

"We are extremely pleased with the returns the Company and its joint venture partner will receive in this transaction," commented Lawrence A.Cohen, Chief Executive Officer of the Company. "The addition of the Spring Meadows communities to our consolidated operations will provide immediate benefits to our shareholders. Along with a significant increase in our revenues, the lease will be accretive to cash flow and earnings. While we have been earning management fees on these communities, we will now be able to consolidate the results of operations and benefit fully from further improvement in occupancies,margins and cash flow. We plan to use the proceeds from this transaction for acquisitions of senior living communities to strategically enhance the geographic concentration of our existing operating platform. We are pleased to add the Spring Meadows communities to our strong and growing relationship with HCN."

The Spring Meadows properties have approximately 625 units with a combined resident capacity of 758 and include two independent and assisted living communities in Illinois, one independent and assisted living community in Connecticut and one assisted living community in New Jersey. Current occupancy of the combined portfolio is 79%, as two of the communities are in the process of converting a total of 28 vacant units to memory care units. These conversions are expected to be complete in the first quarter of 2011. The Company is also working toward the possible conversion of 14 vacant units to memory care at an additional community.

The Company anticipates receiving proceeds, including incentive distributions, from the sale by the joint ventures of approximately $17.0 million, compared to its original investment of approximately $1.3 million. After expected closing costs and taxes, the Company anticipates receiving net proceeds of approximately $11.4 million on the transaction. The gain realized from the sale of its joint venture interests will be amortized over the life of the initial lease term. The Company may receive additional proceeds after the joint venture settles its customary post-closing costs.