As Jefferson City Manor's extensive renovation project continues, the long-term care center is marketing itself more and more to short-term rehab patients.
"We really are focusing on trying to pick up those people that are at home doing well at home, they've had something happen to them, they go to the hospital, they need a few weeks to get back on their feet, then the plan is to go back home," said CEO Ben Scheulen. "We're eventually going to have the biggest and best therapy space in Jeff City for them to do their therapy."
The 102-bed nursing home and rehabilitation center, located at 1720 Vieth Drive, opened its newly remodeled short-term therapy wing in May, after converting 11 semi-private rooms to 12 private ones with all new fixtures. At the same time, every room in the facility got a new bed.
The project eventually will add a large therapy area directly accessible from that wing, along with a private kitchen and dining room for short-term therapy patients.
"They'll get the opportunity to live and mingle with people who are in the same situation as them," Scheulen said.
The new focus doesn't mean Jefferson City Manor is abandoning its traditional long-term care patients, though.
"We're more than a nursing home. We are a traditional nursing home, and we do the long-term care. And that's what Jefferson City Manor has been known for for years," Scheulen said. "The drive these days is to have an area where people feel like it's more of a rehab acute-level setting."
Last week, construction began on the project's second phase, which will reconfigure the building's entry to the front of the facility, adding offices and a conference room, as well as a new living room and cafe seating area.
"This building was built in 1975, and buildings were not built in the '70s and '80s to have the office space that we need today," Scheulen said. "Over time, the building spaces have been converted from rooms into other things, so we're working to convert some of that back."
Later, a building expansion will add a new kitchen that will allow for full restaurant-style dining and a new dining room for all residents.
The expansion will also allow for 30 new parking spaces, a boon for those seeking to use Jefferson City Manor's therapy services after their short-term stay.
"We'll have a very nice auxiliary entrance directly into the therapy room, where people can actually do outpatient therapy if they choose to do so," Scheulen said. "We have the ability to do that now; we just don't have the space for it.
"Ideally what we're looking for is a continuum of care."
Scheulen estimates the current renovation of the entryway and offices should be finished by November, with the rest of the building expansion to be completed by February or March.
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