Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 14, 1995 TAG: 9501160041
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DEVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
That's why Del. Jim Shuler, D-Blacksburg, has agreed to introduce a bill in the House of Delegates asking for special permission for Warm Hearth Village to build a state-of-the-art nursing home.
A petition also is being passed throughout the area to add support for such a facility.
A certificate of public need, issued by the Virginia Department of Health, is required before new nursing homes can be built or additional beds can be added to existing nursing homes. The legislature imposed a moratorium on such certificates in 1988 after a state study showed that there were too many nursing home beds in the state.
"An excessive increase ... may also lead to an unacceptable cost increase in the Medicaid budget," the study stated.
When construction began on Warm Hearth Village in 1981, several phases were planned. The independent-living town houses and houses were built first, followed by the assisted-care facility. The third stage in the continuum, said Sankey, was the nursing home, but the moratorium was imposed before construction could begin.
"The people were younger and didn't need it then," Sankey said. The village is "15 years old now or close to it, and our residents need higher levels of service. Part of the initial plan was to build as [the residents] age."
For people like William and Peggy Skelton of Blacksburg, a new nursing home couldn't be built soon enough. The couple had to put Peggy Skelton's 92-year-old mother into a nursing home in Salem after she became too invalid for the Warm Hearth assisted-care facility.
"There just wasn't any space available anywhere," William Skelton said. "It puts families in an extreme situation when you have nowhere to go. It took us about three weeks under desperation to find a room."
William Skelton said that if his mother-in-law lived in the New River Valley, he or his wife could visit her every day like they used to do when she was at Warm Hearth.
"Now we see her about three times a week," he said. The family doesn't mind driving the extra miles, but it still makes it harder on people in the nursing home, such as his mother-in-law, William Skelton said. "Her mind is still clear enough to know that she's not close to us anymore and it's upsetting."
"Right now, Blacksburg is promoting itself as a retirement community and there's got to be the services," said David Murray, director of development and marketing at Warm Hearth. "With our high occupancy rate, it just doesn't add up" to not have a nursing home as part of the village.
Shuler said the legislation that would allow the nursing home was drafted and submitted to the House on Friday.
"This has been something that's been planned for the last 10 to 15 years and has been part of the Warm Hearth community," Shuler said Friday from his Richmond office. "It would provide a needed service ... to me, it makes sense to complete the mission of the Warm Hearth Village."
Sankey said Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville would not support the legislation for Warm Hearth. Marye is part owner of the Meadowbrook Nursing Home in Shawsville which would be a direct competitor with the village.
There have been several exceptions to the moratorium since it began, but none of those has been in the New River Valley, which is reaching capacity and is projected to need at least 93 additional nursing home beds by 1997, according to the state Health Department. All but one of the exceptions have been for expensive, private nursing homes which would not affect Medicaid costs.
Planners at Warm Hearth Village, however, hope to build a 60-bed nursing home, a portion of which will be available to Medicaid-dependent residents. The home will be one of three buildings in the "Health and Wellness Campus." Other buildings include a special care pavilion for those with Alzheimer's disease or other dementias, and an outreach pavilion which will include a gerontology center and research facilities. The new campus will create approximately 140 jobs, planners said.
A petition will be sent to Virginia lawmakers Jan. 25. Those wishing to sign it can stop by Warm Hearth or any branch of First National Bank, the National Bank of Blacksburg and the Premier Banks in Pulaski and Dublin.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
by CNB