VA chief says nursing home is 'homelike'; North Little Rock site opens in fall, to boast cottage-style living

Sarah Jones of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs looks at an outdoor seating area off a screened porch during a tour Monday of one of eight 10,000-square-foot group homes being built for veterans in a complex near Fort Roots in North Little Rock.
Sarah Jones of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs looks at an outdoor seating area off a screened porch during a tour Monday of one of eight 10,000-square-foot group homes being built for veterans in a complex near Fort Roots in North Little Rock.

The new Arkansas State Veterans Home at North Little Rock is a nursing home, but it looks more like an upscale private home with its rich wood paneling and modern kitchen.

The 96-bed facility features eight cottages on 31 acres across the street from the Eugene J. Towbin Healthcare Center. When it opens this fall, Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs Director Matt Snead said it will be only the third long-term care facility for veterans in the country to use the Green House Project model, an alternative approach to nursing home care.

"The whole idea is to create a warm, caring, homelike atmosphere that doesn't feel institutionalized," Snead said.

Each resident will have a private room and bathroom, and the cottages are staffed with personnel who provide direct medical care along with a variety of household services such as cooking, cleaning and laundry. Those caretakers are assigned to only one cottage, where they're encouraged to interact and develop relationships with the veterans in their care.

Almost 150 veterans have already expressed interest in the home, which is open to eligible veterans and their dependents.

U.S. Sen. John Boozman and state Sen. Jane English toured the grounds Monday, and both raved about the approach.

"I wish there had been a place like this for my dad," said English, a Republican from North Little Rock.

The $24 million construction project is primarily funded by $15.6 million from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; the state covered the remaining costs with $7.5 million in general improvement funds and about $916,000 from the state Department of Veterans Affairs and donations.

Snead said he hopes to admit the first veteran in November and obtain full accreditation by the fall of 2017. At first, the home's residents will have to pay for the care privately, but as the population grows, the Arkansas State Veterans Home at North Little Rock should begin accepting Medicare, Medicaid and reimbursements from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which fund long-term care for veterans who are considered 70 percent disabled, Snead said.

The Little Rock Veterans Home, located since 1980 in a long-closed school for the blind on Charles Bussey Avenue, shut down in 2012 due to deplorable living conditions and a lack of funding. Its closure led some lawmakers to question whether the state should be in the nursing-home business.

Snead, who was appointed to the director's chair early last year, said he asked himself the same question. The state should, in his view, operate nursing homes for veterans because its goal is not to turn a profit, allowing it to maintain staffing levels well above industry standards.

Since the Little Rock home's closure, the veterans home in Fayetteville has been the only state-run veterans home in Arkansas. Neighboring states all operate at least three similar long-term care facilities for former armed-services members. Tennessee, for example, runs four such homes; Missouri runs seven.

Snead, however, said he isn't sure that building more long-term care facilities is the solution. He offered public-private partnerships as a possible option, noting the possibility that a decreasing veteran population could nullify the need for additional homes.

Problems have long plagued the state at its long-term care facilities for veterans.

In 2012, the Office of Long Term Care, a nursing-home watchdog wing of the state Department of Human Services, cited the Fayetteville facility for 22 patient-care violations. Problems included medication errors, unsanitary conditions and cold or inedible food. Prior to those citations, the home was flagged multiple times, including for allegations of neglect, failing to file reports and staff members providing false reports.

In Little Rock, the home's closure came only months after the ouster of former state VA Director Dave Fletcher due to allegations of illegal fee collection, missing inventory and other administrative concerns.

Of late, the quality of care has improved. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently gave the Fayetteville home a five-star rating -- the highest mark awarded only to 10 percent of the state's nursing homes.

Boozman said he expects that trend to continue in North Little Rock.

"They're really doing a tremendous job," the Rogers Republican said Monday. "I think this place can be a template and set an example for similar facilities in other states. That's what it's all about."

Metro on 07/26/2016

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