Series 2015-2016: Best Managed Firms – Assisted Living

Creating a home-like, active environment is the focus at the Pennwood Aged Care Facilities.

Owned by the Serbian Community Welfare Associate of SA Inc, it was formed in 1993, when Pennwood was first built. It was the first multicultural aged care facility to operate in South Australia, providing a safe environment for refugees coming from Serbia and Hungary.

The two facilities are both headquartered in Adelaide, South Australia, with Pennwood Aged Care village located in the western suburb of Pennington, and Pennwood Green in the eastern suburb of Oakton. Pennwood has just begun running consumer directed care services to homes and offers 35 different packages to European people in western Adelaide.

Pennwood’s CEO Anne Brown says over 100 staff members work across both sites with 135 care recipients. Pennwood also has plans to expand in the near future.“We do intend to expand and we have purchased land at Pennington and are currently planning to purchase land at Oakden. Currently the Village has 60 beds and Oakden 40. We want to expand to 80 and 60 respectively. We need to apply for Bed Licenses this year. We also want to expand into home care services and eventually we’d like to have at least 60-80 home care packages.”

Pennwood is one of the first aged care facilities to adopt a new lifestyle model which encourages people to keep active and moving. The new Healthy Lifestyle Model adopted from the WHO encourages people to “walk till they die”. This sits alongside our Home Care Services living longer, living better model of care which has been promoted by Pennwood. The Australian government enables people to stay in their own homes, moving away from the old medical model where a nurse governed ward rounds and tasks.

“Australia now is moving towards a more dementia friendly home-like environment. Our government has invested a lot of money to change residential care facility environments to make them more home-like. Recently, we have engaged architects to assess and carry out environmental audits to move away from an institutional clinical look to a more home-like environment with home-like purposeful activities,” Brown says.

This more active lifestyle sees staff helping the care recipients with daily activities, rather than remaining in bed and having room services. Brown says doing this provides people with more purpose in life and, when they can get up in the morning, they feel more motivated to take part in events and to be of assistance to other people.

Pennwood Aged Care invests a lot of money and time into staff training. Recently some key staff completed the mental health first aid and dementia courses. Having the right skills is important to support care recipients who suffer from anxiety, dementia and memory loss. New technology within the medical sector has also helped to improve the services offered and allows staff to train and study on line.

Says Brown, “In the last two years we’ve introduced Leecare electronic care plans. Our industry is moving towards electronic communication systems to improve services, maintain privacy, and reduce our footprint as we are planning to be paperless. All our care plans are stored in electronic systems to enable consistent high-quality care.”

The new Aged Care National Standards which concentrate on performance indicators to manage quality and standards are top of mind. The three KPI’s that Pennwood is benchmarking against are restraint, skin integrity and weight loss associated with good diet and hydration. There is a trend within the industry that these areas be closely monitored and reported in a timely manner so that quality standards can be maintained. Clinical staff respond very quickly to pressure area breakdown and address areas of concern by assessing wounds. These days hospitals also have to report pressure sores. The model comes from the UK and is all about timely reporting. “That’s probably one of the biggest improvements in our health care setting as we rarely see pressure sores with improved manual handling, wound care products, electronic beds to change positions, and air mattresses. The national standards for key performance indicators are measured in the hospital and in residential care facilities to maintain quality standards of care.”

Pennwood Village has just introduced a Multimedia TV program to provide innovative, interactive solutions to help care recipients engage with all the events and activity programs for the day. The staff and care recipients birthdays are advertised on the big screen, which then transmits to TVs in the Lounge and on the TV in their rooms. Special events and trips can thus be seen by families and this makes the residents feel like celebrities.

The organisation also offers memory loss assistive programs, in addition to art and craft programmes, which have been well received. All the corridors have CCTV cameras so staff can observe unusual movements, especially at night should one accidently wander or fall. The corridors and dining rooms are colour coordinated so the care recipients can easily find and recognise their living area and make their way to and from activity room independently. The care recipients’ front door is painted The colours in which the front doors are painted, the listed name and number all ensure that residents easily recognise their own room.

Brown says gardening has also provided a strong sense of pride. “We’ve introduced a raised garden where care recipients can plant strawberries, vegetables and herbs. Being able to feel water, smell the soil and watch plants grow gives residents a sense of purpose in life; looking after the plants and giving them away to staff or visitors is inspiring and seen as a real act of love. It is extremely important to encourage gardening activities like these.”

Some of the other initiatives include exercise programs to help strengthen the core which helps reduce pain and the likelihood of falling. A range of mobility aides assist independence. A golf buggy, which is fun and useful for transporting people between activities, such as cultural events and walks in the park, adds to the Pennwood experience.

Pennwood marketing has been built on a strong reputation and word of mouth, although the organisation is still proactive in promoting to the wider public. “The industry media sites we currently use are DPS on line and we advertise in their Magazine Aged. We also use aged care online. We have a five star rating as an aged care facility, mainly because of the size, the environment, extensive gardens, and fresh European food cooked daily. Single room ensuites, highly skilled, bilingual staff are important aspects of our offering. We have photographs on these websites as well as a feature magazine story about being culturally and linguistically diverse. We also advertise on the Seniors Information and the MyAgedCare website. We have also got our own website, a Facebook page, and a LinkedIn presence. Finally, we collaborate with the Serbian Church,” Brown says.

Continuous improvement is a big focus at Pennwood and they regularly conduct surveys to get the feedback they need to make sure they are moving in the right direction. The aged care recipients are given surveys which include questions about the lifestyle, independence, food choices, staff customer service, and quality standards.  Education and Staff Development programs keep the staff up-to-date with their skills and their training. Pennwood has a strong focus on person centred care.

Brown says growth, profitability, maintaining high standards, keeping staff and care recipients healthy, engaged and fit are the big goals she wants to achieve in the next five years.

“Growth is going to be one of the big things for us. We need to expand to remain financially viable. We also need to maintain the quality and care but also the lifestyle that we’ve got for the care recipients and the staff. And keeping up the morale, we have social workers who come and talk to residents and staff regarding any mental health issues. Some of our staff were refugees from war torn Serbia so they are here to make a difference for their community. Eastern Europeans, in my opinion, have a wonderful work ethic and are savvy with new technology. These qualities along with ongoing training, confidence building and support allows them to excel in many areas” concludes Brown.

A family run Ageing in Place facility located in the heart of Greensborough, a leafy suburb of Melbourne, Grace Villa provides best-in-class facilities for its residents. In operation since 1988, this 91 bed establishment has an impeccable track record for the highest quality care and facilities coupled with an attitude of genuine care and compassion.

Shoba Samuel, General Manager, explains how Grace Villa started, “The inception of Grace Villa was in 1988 and the founders were Sam and Kay Samuel. Sam has a background of management and Kay has a nursing background. In the last 10 years their children of which I am one have come on board to continue their legacy. We pride ourselves on ensuring that we have a connection with all our residents and families and they aren’t considered as just a number.”

A complete range of options

The care needs of older persons vary with age and the specific requirements of each individual. It is not assumed that all the residents share the same interests and necessities. With this in mind, it is ensured that personalised care is provided which considers every individual is not the same and does not share the same social interests.

Employee satisfaction is taken very seriously and this is reflected through the retention of long standing staff, some of which have been with the organisation for 26 years.  Staff are well experienced professionals and their caring and passionate nature is conveyed through their work ethics. All employees and contractor’s staff are subject to police and background checks and are required to undergo continuous ongoing training and professional development. The Management team comprises of the Director- Sam Samuel, Director of Nursing – Kay Samuel, Nurse Unit Manger- Dawn Gopal, Occupational Health and Safety Representative- Daryl Honey, Chief Financial Officer- Roshan Varughese.

The Australian Aged Care Quality Agency has certified the facility in all of its 44 standards and this has been an ongoing record since the standards were introduced. In fact, the recent re-accreditation assessors recommended the facility apply for the Better Practice awards due to the impeccable record maintained in infection control.

Best-in-class practices are followed in every aspect of running each of the different areas of operation. This achievement is a result of discipline and methods honed over the decades by the experienced owners of this family-run establishment.

Commenting on the high quality standards and single-minded dedication with which Grace Villa is managed, Shoba reveals one of the methods used to continuously improve and provide care of the highest order to the residents, “We constantly try and improve our facility. This is a home for our residents and we want to make sure that they are comfortable in their environment. Residents and their families can fill forms to give comments and suggestions. These are reviewed weekly and implemented where practical. We also have a general services survey that we conduct on an annual basis for residents and their families and staff to provide feedback.

The way we try to differentiate ourselves is that as a family run aged care facility we try to foster a family environment with our residents, staff and families. A lot of our residents come to us through word of mouth. In fact, we encourage our families to bring their loved ones in for respite care in order to assess the facility as to whether they enjoy the amenities and services being provided. We have found that almost all of our residents convert their respite care stay to permanent accommodation.

Being a family run organisation, we are compassionate towards the needs of our residents. As an example, a resident of our facility was in a position where he could not afford to buy clothing for himself. He had no family and no loved ones except us to look after his needs. We co-ordinated with staff to ensure that his wardrobe was checked and any of his needs met in relation to getting the clothing he required. We are not a corporate organisation where every resident is considered a dollar amount. We cherish our residents at an individual level and they admire us for that.”

The different categories of care available at Grace Villa are:

Ageing in Place

A residential facility for those requiring basic and complex care. Individuals are encouraged to be as independent as they can. All the facilities required for assistance in daily living are provided. Recreational and entertainment facilities are also provided to ensure a high quality of life. Programs are structured based on individual needs and residents enjoy the care of trained and competent staff.

Additionally, 24-hour nursing, continence aids, pharmaceutical requirements and therapy are provided. The level of care is based on the individual’s physical, psychological, medical, cultural and social needs.

Memory Care

While dementia does not strike all older people, the likelihood of being diagnosed with this condition increases with age. At the time of onset of the condition, the symptoms are mild and do not interfere with leading a normal life. However, with the passage of time the disease has a greater impact and there is a requirement for constant care.

Grace Villa is well equipped to provide special care to those living with dementia and has a specific dementia wing. All the rooms in our Memory Care wing have technology built in which allows our care staff to be alerted if our residents’ movements stray away from their normal actions while they are in their rooms during the night. This is useful to allow staff to be able to assist our residents and prevent a fall from occurring.

Shoba explains that memory care is on the top of the list of priorities for Grace Villa especially in view of the increasing demand for care in this area. “We are building a brand new purpose built 130 bed facility in Diamond Creek that will be operational by the end of the year which includes a secure wing for memory care.”

Respite care

Temporary facilities for a couple of weeks stay are provided to older people so that those providing care for them on a regular basis can take a break. With its experience in the field, Grace Villa has the infrastructure and personnel to provide respite care in a competent fashion.

A wide range of facilities for the residents

Grace Villa prides itself on the warmth and affection that it shows for its residents. It focuses all its energies on making their stay as comfortable as possible and goes to great lengths to ensure that there are a number of activities to get involved in and keep them entertained. A “Lifestyle Coordinator” holds discussions with residents to find out about their preferences and arranges visits by musicians, performance artists, school children, church services etc.

Regular sessions are also held where residents may participate in activities like floor games, gardening, singing and bingo. There is a well-stocked library which has a wide range of books and also subscribes to a variety of publications. Visits by a mobile library are also organised. The lifestyle co-ordinator also organises regular resident outings to bistros, parks, boathouses and other locations. These events bring great joy to our residents and families are also invited to join in the fun.

The dietary requirements of residents are catered to by providing wholesome and nutritious food which is freshly cooked on the premises. The in-house chefs take inputs from the nursing staff, dieticians, residents and their families and devise a four week rotating summer and winter menu. Requests for special items and food which is in compliance with the religious requirements of residents are also accommodated.

The residents are provided with well-appointed rooms with ensuites. Facilities include individual air-conditioning units, sensor activated lighting and an emergency nurse call system. Every care is taken to ensure the well-being and safety of residents.

Technology plays a very important part in providing residents with unmatched care. Shoba explains the role that technology plays at Grace Villa, “Technology is growing in the aged care industry. For us the technology that we use is mainly around our critical software programs and background services that is to ensure that there is less room for human error. At the moment we are using an award winning program that enables staff, doctors and allied services to be aware of what is going on with the residents”. Staff have tablets to allow them to look up and update resident’s details while they are with our residents. This ensures that no information is lost in the process. In the move to adopt technology at a faster rate, Wi-Fi services have been rolled out in the facility. This is available for the organisation as well as the residents.

Grace Villa ensures that residents have access to the entire range of medical services by arranging visits by specialists. Qualified practitioners in the fields of physiotherapy, podiatry, speech pathology and therapeutic massage regularly visit the premises. Additionally, facilities for pathology tests, dialysis and X-rays are also available through local tie-ups.

Partnerships with suppliers

Grace Villa has the unique distinction of being associated with several suppliers for decades. Shoba describes the management’s philosophy regarding suppliers, “In order to provide the services that we need for our residents and staff it is important that we have a good relationship with our suppliers. We have used many over the years. Our suppliers for us are more than just suppliers. They form an integral part of our business and we treat them more as our partners.

It’s important that we have a sustainable relationship with our suppliers. We have used many over the last 20 years and they are still with us. In particular we have consultants for training and development. Our software program and clinical training providers have been with us for more than 28 years. We have been using the same pharmacists for 26 years and they also conduct ongoing training for our staff.”

Grace Villa has been providing aged care services of the highest standard for over a quarter century. Its forte is the ability to personalise the care program it develops for each of its residents. The staff is specially trained to treat residents with care and warmth. The fact that the facility is family managed, gives it an edge over others in the field because of the tradition of excellence that has been built up over the years and is now being carried forward by the next generation. Grace Villa prides itself on how residents are treated and it treats residents’ families and staff as their own family and they give the facility credit and appreciate their efforts for this.