A  series of articles regarding nursing homes in Michigan that ran  in the Detroit Free Press in mid-December reported some good news for Meadow Brook Director, Marna Robertson, and her hard working staff. While the main focus of the series highlighted some very bad and dangerous facilities in Michigan and the difficulty  the state has in getting them up to grade or shut down,  there was some attention given to the state’s better nursing homes and the series concluded with a  chart grading Michigan’s 428 long term care facilities based on  a recent evaluation by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  It was in that evaluation ranking that Meadow Brook staffers and all of us who call Antrim County  home, found the good news.  Meadow Brook was ranked within the top ten percent among the state’s 428 licensed nursing home facilities.

The rankings were determined by scores based on health inspections, staffing levels and patient care quality and Meadow Brook scored well above  the state average in most criteria and consistently pulled four and five star rankings in health inspections.  None of this comes as a surprise to most  of the people who have witnessed first-hand the care a family member has received at Meadow Brook.

That care can only continue to get even better with the  culture change planned for Meadow Brook that will create what Robertson characterizes as “person centered care,” designed to put  residents at the center of decision making in a more home-like environment.  While that concept has already begun with simple things like extended meal times and a wider variety of food selection, the concept  will  only be fully implemented  with the completion of planned construction  of a new three story building and renovation of existing facilities  that will house residents in private rooms clustered in small household units that will give them the privacy they desire while  providing the opportunity for  the social interaction they need.

The status of that construction project, which was stalled last year because  bids came in way over expectations, is back on what Robertson describes as  an “aggressive timeline.”  The Meadow Brook staff, she says, has been working very closely with County Administrator, Pete Garwood and the county’s Building and Grounds Committee to move this project along.  “We have a really good team,” Robertson said, adding that each member of the  Building and Grounds Committee has construction experience, “and that,” she says, “has been a big help.” The Christman  Company, headquartered in Lansing but with an office in Traverse City, has been hired to act as construction manger to oversee  bidding and hiring of contractors to do the work, according to Robertson, and will be advertising for bids early in March and  the  Building and Ground Committee expects to review those bids later that same month.  The bond sale, she says, will take place in mid April and she expects  that construction will begin the latter part of May.

That construction will begin  with a new parking lot along with construction of the new three story facility with plans to have  the outside work completed by this fall so that inside work can continue during the winter and 60 residents can move into their new digs in the spring of 2013. That will then allow for  the start of renovation of the existing building leading to  completion of the whole project by fall of 2014.

This is all pretty exciting stuff that, when completed, will greatly enhance the quality of life  for present and future residents of Meadow Brook and will continue to keep it one of Michigan’s top long term care facilities and one of Antrim County’s crown jewels.