The Heritage serves needs of the senior community
Page 4 • Wednesday, December 4, 2013 • The Hammonton Gazette
HERITAGE, from?Page 1
tion more than a decade ago.
Its former services consisted of an adult
medical daycare, and a nursing home, but
Zirbser’s family sold those business amenities and it is now primarily an assisted-living housing facility. He is also a licensed
nursing home administrator, but assumed
his current role when those services were
sold to other entities.
Zirbser, who has been in his current position as director of the facility for the past
two years, stated that The Heritage accepts
private pay and Medicaid, private insurance, but there isn’t Med icare reimbursement. The majority of the residents are
Medicaid recipients, and they provide a full
array of services.
“We provide daily meals, three meals-aday, activities, programming, housekeeping
services and nursing services,” Zirbser said.
The Heritage has a staff of licensed practical nurses, and that is a 24-hour-a-day
service for the residents to take advantage
of, especially those that need extensive
care.
“We do have a licensed nurse in the
building. They can do everything from
medication administration, blood pressure
monitoring and a full-range of services. We
have an RN [registered nurse] who is on
duty, Monday through Friday, and takes
calls during the off hours. We do assist the
families with making doctor’s appointments and getting the residents to the doctors,” Zirbser said.
There are a plethora of activities
offered to the residents of The Heritage, and according to Zirbser, the
youngest resident is 50 years old
and the oldest is 106.
“We do everything from group
activities to individualized activities. We take trips. Twice a month
we take outside trips. We will go to
places such as the casino, bowling,
the aquarium and we will ask the
residents a month before what they
would like to do the following
month. In addition to the supervised trips, we do unsupervised
trips for those residents that can get
out and we take them to the local
establishments in Hammonton. We
do that three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. We
will go to Walmart, Shoprite, the
bank, the post office and we will
drop them off and there will be a
designated time to pick them up.
That is for those that are more alertoriented and can handle themselves
without supervision,” Zirbser said.
A physical therapy staff is available at The Heritage, and they perform their duties in a physical
therapy gym located inside the facility. For those that require therapy, the assisted-living housing
area can help. The staff is in the
gym twice a week, and depending
on the situation, there can be a
maximum of five days of physical
therapy time for the residents, according to Zirbser.
Many of the assisted-living housing complexes in the area offer
physical therapy, but they would
have to perform the service in a
separate location. Zirbser enjoys
that fact that they can do that service in-house, with the gym they
have.
There are five different room layouts, and they are both private and
semi-private spaces. For those residents that have Medicaid services
it would be a semi-private housing
arrangement, and according to
Zirbser, this assisted-living facility
is only one of two in the area that
provides Medicaid to its residents
from the start.
“The rooms all come equipped
with bedroom, bathroom, refrigerator, microwave, handicap accessible. As far as the bathrooms are
concerned, they are all the same
sizes so whether it is the smallest or
largest room, but they all have pullout seats for the showers and safety
bars. From a marketing standpoint,
one of the nice things about our facility is that we do accept Medicaid. Most facilities in assisted
living you have to pay privately for a substantial period of time before converting to
Medicaid. We do not and as long as we
have a semi-private room available, we will
take a directed Medicaid which there is
only two facilities around that will do that,
and we are one of them,” Zirbser said.
Zirbser indicated that the residents at The
Heritage feel as though the facility is a
home-like atmosphere with friendly care
and service. The residents can leave the facility for a time, as long as it is in a safe
manner and visitation hours are very flexible. The doors are opened from 8 a.m. to 9
p.m. with the family code, but they can visit
24 hours a day, if circumstances warrant.
“This is considered their home and it is
like a home. I don’t want to use the word
institution, but this is their home. They are
pretty much free to come and go as they
choose, as long as they are safe. Our doors
are all locked, for security purposes, but if
someone resides here and their family
wants to take them home for the holidays
or home for a vacation, and if they want to
go on vacation for a few days with a loved
one, that absolutely is not a problem,” Zirbser said.
In addition, hospice services are available
at the facility. The building also provides
space for civic and social groups for meeting purposes.
“We can accommodate that. They [the
groups] should feel free to call. We have a
conference room that will comfortably fit
15 to 20, and I do have some other areas
that can go up to 25 people in a room. For
no charge, we would be more than willing
to have them utilize the space and we have
done that before,” Zirbser said.
Zirbser stated that The Heritage is receiving an increased amount of referrals from
Hammonton residents. He said approximately 30 local individuals are living at the
facility at the moment.
Vivian Myers is one of the residents from
Hammonton, and she has been at The Heritage for the past two years. Myers is 82
years old and enjoys many aspects of the
home-environment type of facility.
“It is nice here. Everyone is good to me.
I am quiet, I don’t complain and I just like
everybody here. I go on some of the trips,
See CARE,?Page 12
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