ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609090020
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
Warm Hearth Village's proposed nursing home has passed another regulatory milestone. Wednesday, the Southwest Virginia Health Systems Agency board recommended approval of Warm Hearth's application for a certificate of public need.
Next for the project is review by the Virginia Department of Health and a decision by the state health commissioner, expected by early November. Warm Hearth needs approval of the certificate before it can begin building.
In 1995, after an extensive local lobbying effort, Warm Hearth received an exception to a statewide moratorium on new nursing home beds enacted by the state in the late 1980s. A state need assessment showed the New River Valley will need 134 new nursing home beds by 2001, said David Murray, director of development and marketing for Warm Hearth. Some New River Valley residents already have had to leave the valley to find space in a nursing home.
The new 57,457-square-foot nursing home will provide 60 of those beds. Twelve will be in private rooms, and 48 will be in semiprivate rooms. The cost for a bed in a semiprivate room will approach $90 a day, similar to other area nursing homes, and Warm Hearth projects that about half of its residents will receive public assistance.
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