New owners take over Springfield nursing site

Nov. 21--The new owners of Villa Springfield said they plan to make significant renovations at the facility after acquiring the business from a California-based chain.

Crown Healthcare Group recently acquired Villa Springfield, a skilled nursing facility at 701 Villa Road, from Covenant Care, a California company that operated 55 facilities in seven states. Crown is only about six months old, said Fred Friedman, the company's founder. Crown has also acquired other facilities in Southwest Ohio including the Versailles Health Care Center in Versailles, Ohio and the Wright Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center in Fairborn.

The company looked at a variety of facilities throughout Ohio but acquired Villa Springfield in part because of its five-star overall rating on Medicare.gov's Nursing Home Compare site and the fact many key staff members had years of experience at the facility, said Kevin Daubenmire, CEO of Crown.

The existing staff is familiar with the local community, but the previous ownership's policies sometimes made it challenging to be as active in local events as needed. Daubenmire said Crown will be more active locally, including sponsoring local sports teams and participating in local events.

They also plan on making other changes, including developing an evaluation system for employees and beginning to offer annual raises, which they said was not the case in the past. They declined to provide an estimate of their planned investment to renovate the facility.

"They know the landscape but sometimes when you have a corporate operator you have certain restrictions," Daubenmire said of the staff.

Information from the Clark County Auditor's office shows the property was sold for about $6.3 million.

Some of the changes will be noticeable while other improvements will be more subtle, Friedman said. Most of the improvements should be completed over the next year or so. Some of the changes include repaving the facility's parking lot and revamping the menu to provide more meals that are appealing to patients.

The company is also planning to make some interior renovations to the facility, although Daubenmire said the site is generally in good shape. The new owners also said they plan to look for opportunities to bring more entertainment options to the site that cater to the kinds of music or other entertainment guests prefer.

The Springfield facility has roughly 45 employees and while the number of patients varies they estimated staff work with about 80 to 100 patients per day. The existing staff already has a good relationship with patients but the changes will ideally make the facility more comfortable when area residents are recovering from surgery or an illness, said Mo Weintraub, Crown's chief operating officer.

"That's one of the things we pride ourselves on is trying to get people back on their feet and back home with their family," Weintraub said.

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