After nearly a decade of planning, fundraising and a $37.5 million construction and renovation project, Atlanta-based provider A.G. Rhodes officially opened its new 72-bed “household-model” building Friday.
The new memory care-focused skilled nursing facility, as well as an attached building that was renovated, are the first fruit of the 120-year-old nonprofit’s commitment to transitioning all three of its locations to single-occupancy rooms.
The Marietta, GA, project could be a successful model for the future of long-term care, according to A.G. Rhodes CEO Deke Cateau.
“We decided to double down on nursing home care while many were moving away from it,” he told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Monday. He noted that complex financial and regulatory burdens have caused many providers to close or transition to other models of care.
“We started this journey a long time ago and it took so long because we were very careful about what would work and what would not work,” he explained. “It is part of our mission to be that leader and offer this as a replicable model.”
A unique vision
The new memory care building is laid out in six, 12-resident “households” connected into one broader “neighborhood” within the building.
The existing Marietta location was also renovated to the household model and consolidated its number of beds to 58.
While this notably doesn’t expand A.G. Rhodes’ bed numbers at the location, it does allow leaders there to position themselves as a specialist provider in memory care — and meet a growing market demand for the privacy and quality of life improvements that come with private rooms.
Cateau was quick to point to the provider’s mission to deliver both dignity and high-quality, person-centered care as a primary motivator, though.
“It makes sense firstly because of the type of care we’re going to give as a mission-driven nonprofit. We’re always going to lead with that — with doing the right thing,” he said.
He described a research process for the project that began in 2015 and involved trips to Green House Project facilities in the US and as far away as the Netherlands to visit memory care buildings.
A.G. Rhodes also prioritized working with architects who weren’t specialists in traditional nursing homes alone — instead opting to create as much of a smaller home-like atmosphere as possible.
Planning began well before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the lessons driven home by the health emergency only increased the provider’s resolve to move ahead with the project.
“COVID gave us the opportunity to make a few adjustments and, most importantly, to see why these smaller units are so important,” he said. “The spread of infection during COVID was allowed to run so rampant because of the large numbers of folks under our care. In these households … we are able to isolate each household in case of an outbreak and thus limit … the spread of infection.”
Cateau also noted that the new and renovated building designs appeal to staff members. They provide a more welcoming environment for residents and their vital care workers.
A ‘leap of faith’
The project came with a notable price tag — $37.5 million. Cateau noted that around $14.5 million was supplied through fundraising, while the rest was feasible for the provider because it had been able to clear its existing debts beforehand.
The remaining $23 million represents a “leap of faith” into the future of long-term care, Cateau said — but one that puts A.G. Rhodes at the forefront of emerging trends toward quality of care, private rooms and memory care specialization. Those could be areas where state governments across the US add incentives and add-ons to existing Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements in the future.
“At the right time, we definitely want to engage stakeholders in the state of Georgia to look at [private room incentives],” Cateau told McKnight’s. “I think that is the only way our nation’s nursing homes are going to change and other than that, we’re not going to be the only ones in trouble — everyone is going to be in trouble.”
Long-term care policy advocates in states like Ohio have previously been successful at winning incentives for private rooms and Green House-style buildings.
Cateau mentioned that A.G. Rhodes’ home state of Georgia has already begun looking at reimbursement add-ons for residents with severe cognitive impairment — an issue which will likely become more pronounced as the population ages and increases in acuity.
And while Cateau himself describes the strategy as a leap of faith, he noted that the years of planning were dedicated to making the household strategy broadly replicable — not just by A.G. Rhodes at its other facilities, but by other providers as well.
“Other models … are very prescriptive,” he said. “We are not offering any of our services like that — for sale — we are willing to openly share the path.”
This story originally appeared on the website of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, the McKnight’s brand that focuses on skilled nursing.
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