Here are some quotes from an article on the Blue Ridge Now website, by one of the owners, Mike Deloach.
*Deloach said The Lodge will serve as SanStone’s “showplace” community, which is why the company is relocating its offices from Biltmore Park to the Mills River facility.
*“We’re one of the smallest — or the smallest — in Western North Carolina,” Duncan said. “Which, I think, gives us a more family-oriented, home-like environment.”
*“That’s the way of the future. That’s what people want,” Deloach said. “We’re trying to create the ‘anti-nursing home’ nursing home.”
According to what I've read, this place is like a resort. Vaulted ceilings, wood floors, dark wood furniture and accents, sunrooms and porches. That's not all folks they also have a "café style dining room, coffee and ice cream bar and hair salon! And if that weren't enough to get you signed up, they even have flat screen TV's.
Here is the description copied from the SanStone website :
About Us
The Lodge at Mills River is western NC's newest skilled and rehabilitation center. We celebrate our grand opening on November 17th with the Mills River community.
Striving for excellence, we promise to serve our residents and their families with compassion and integrity during this vital and often overwhelming time of their lives. For all of our professional services, The Lodge is committed to providing experienced care in a cheerful environment that features 38 private rooms, a rehab gym, and spacious common areas.
We invite you to visit our community, meet our dedicated staff, and discover for yourself what makes The Lodge at Mills River a leader in rehabilitation and residential care.
Wow that is quite a place, if you believe what Mike Deloach and the staff have to say. I have prior experience with SanStone, and find it hard to believe anything they say or publish. That said I decided to look them up on Medicare.gov to see their rating. Medicare.gov uses a star rating system, one being the lowest and five the highest. With all the hoopla over The Lodge at Mills River, you would expect a pretty high rating. I mean Mike Deloach himself said this was a " showplace " community. It was no surprise to me to see that they had a two star rating, which is below average!
I am assuming, like all their other facilities, they spend their money on cosmetics, and operate with a minimum staff. Nursing homes need nurses! All of the bells and whistles offered and they still can only rate two stars?
Don't believe a word these profiteers say about what they can do for you. From my experience and interviews with past patients and the families of those who didn't survive a SanStone facility, it is simple economics. It all boils down to one major thing; staffing. Staffing is a major expense in any business, but a very important component , especially in a nursing home. Unlike a restaurant, if you don't like the service, you cant just get up and leave.
Most of the major travel websites use the star rating as well. I for one will not stay at a hotel that has no more than two stars. No matter what the advertising says I wont eat at a restaurant that doesn't have more than two stars. Yet here is a nursing home that claims to be a " showplace " but only two stars from Medicare.gov. I bet they rarely have an empty bed.
I am posting the link to their review on Medicare.gov so you can see for yourselves.
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