University Hospital shifting nursing home beds to Summerville

May 25--University Hospital's board of directors voted Thursday to invest nearly $4 million into its Summerville hospital, the majority of which would be spent converting three floors into an 80-bed skilled nursing home to better compete with providers in central and west Augusta.

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University will move the beds from its Extended Care Amara facility, a 193-bed skilled nursing center off Peach Orchard Road.

The new nursing home -- a $2.9 million investment -- would occupy three floors of the "V tower" on the Summerville facility's south end and would include a dedicated courtyard and a separate entrance, according to a presentation to the board. The Summerville property is the former 231-bed Trinity Hospital of Augusta that University acquired last year.

"You may recall when we bought the Summerville campus, one of the things we talked about was maybe using some of the campus for the nursing home, particularly Amara," University Health Care System CEO Jim Davis told the board. "So this is really fulfilling that vision."

The Amara nursing center was licensed for 213 beds when University acquired it for $3.5 million at a bankruptcy auction in 2016. The health system later shifted 20 Amara beds to its Kentwood extended care facility on West Wheeler Parkway.

Once the Summerville nursing center opens, Amara would be left with 113 beds, which is more in line with its current population, said Tom Lowenkamp, University's vice president of operations.

"The physical plant itself at Amara does not allow us to optimize 193 licenses," Lowenkamp said during the presentation. "We are probably not going to see our census grow past 100 in that building. So without being able to optimize those licenses, we cant capture that market share."

Moving beds from the decades-old facility -- situated in the Rocky Creek flood plain near a low-income neighborhood -- to the more centrally located Summerville hospital is projected to boost University's share of the skilled nursing home market from 20 percent to 30 percent. Competitors include PruittHealth's Augusta Hills facility on Cumming Road and SavaSeniorCare's Azalea Health and Rehabilitation Center, which is located next door to the Summerville hospital on Anthony Road.

Lowenkamp said the 80-bed facility would be "on par" with University's Kentwood and Westwood facilities, which have private rooms and bathrooms, he said. Two of the three floors would be secure units for special-needs patients, such as those with Alzheimer's disease or mental illnesses. He projected the investment would generate 25 percent returns after the second year and pay for itself in 5 1/2 years.

The rest of the nearly $4 million request will pay for a $1.06 million relocation of Summerville's 18-bed acute medical surgical unit from the first floor to the third. The renovation cost is almost equally split between construction costs and installing new information technology, said Reyne Gallup, vice president of patient care services.

"This space has a nicer footprint than where they currently are but still needs some upgrades," she said.

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