New Healthcare Resort pushes five-star amenities, service

The lobby of the Healthcare Resort of Topeka would fool most people into thinking they had just checked into a nice spa or hotel. That is exactly the concept the organization, which bills itself online as "the fusion of world-class healthcare and personalized hospitality," aims to impart.

One of the first hints this isn't your everyday rehabilitation and assisted living facility at 6202 S.W. 6th Ave. is the pub located just off the main lobby. Such amenities, said Bryan McDaniel, executive director, are what residents want today.

"One of the things that people in the nursing home discovered is that folks needing to rehab don't want to go to a nursing home for rehab," he said. "If they're younger, they don't want to go because it's an aging population."

Older rehabilitation patients, who don't want to make a permanent move to assisted living or a retirement home, don't want to go because they are afraid they won't leave and get back to their independent living, McDaniel said, adding that was something he experienced with his own mother.

The first floor of the 71,000-square-foot Healthcare Resort of Topeka, which is owned and operated by The Ensign Group Inc., of Mission Viejo, Calif., is dedicated to rehabilitation services, where the average length of state is 7 to 14 days, he said. The second floor features 24 assisted living apartments, which are licensed for 35 people.

A separate pub on the second floor serves the AL residents, along with a theater room and communal dining, although each apartment also has its own kitchen.

Other amenities in the resort include a spa area, where services are part of the package for rehabilitation patients, and chefs that prepare gourmet meals, McDaniel said.

The business, when it is up and running fully, will employ 125 to 150 people. It is opening with a smaller staff of about 25. It takes time to find residents for the AL apartments, and McDaniel said staff has been working to let area hospitals and doctors know about the resort as an option for rehab patients. Like any other rehab facility, they take Medicare and private insurance.

Last week, the resort was expected to receive the final regulatory approvals to begin accepting rehab patients. McDaniel said the AL apartments, of which three or four have been filled, will be open about mid-September.

Meanwhile, McDaniel and others have been training the newly hired staff, detailing the vision of the Healthcare Resorts.

"We go through a training process where you say, 'Visualize visiting a resort. What would you anticipate? Would you anticipate somebody saying this really isn't my job? Would you anticipate marginal service?'" McDaniel said. "With the expectation that the people who live here are guests, and that's what we'll refer to them by. No different than what you would expect to see at a resort. That's the training that we're trying to provide our staff here."

Even the staff CNAs aren't referred to by their professional designations. They are guest specialists, McDaniel said.

The concept for a health care resort was the vision of Eric Gillis, vice president of The Healthcare Resorts for Ensign, McDaniel explained. Before moving into the health care field, Gillis worked for Marriott hotels, and he brought that vision of service to the industry.

There currently are nine Healthcare Resorts, with four in the Kansas City area, and others in Texas and Colorado.

Five-star services and amenities have the side effect of making it pleasant for family and friends to visit their loved ones in the rehab or AL side, McDaniel said.

"People don't mind coming to visit, which works out well for the guests here, because if your family's here playing cards with you or down at the pub or getting their hair done, you feel more at home," he said. "One of the things that we find in elderly rehab, is fighting depression. They want to be at their house. Well, if this is a pleasant environment, particularly if their family is here visiting all the time, you actually have a more speedy recovery."

Angela de Rocha, director of communications for the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, said assisted living and retirement facilities have shown a trend toward person-centered care.

"A lot of people still think about what it was like 40 years ago, and it was basically a very institutional, regulation-driven kind of life," she said. "And now, with what these facilities are doing, people have the opportunity to live their life the way they want to live it."

Credit: By Morgan Chilson [email protected]