By ELAINE D'AURIZIO / The Record
LINCOLN PARK - The newest addition to a growing local "health campus" is bringing in a lot of green, for both clients seeking soothing rehabilitation and a borough looking for a revenue and employment boost.
When it opens, likely in April, the Jerry and Dolores Turco (JDT) Medical Rehabilitation Center will feature the Atrium Healing Garden, offering the sights, sounds and serenity of an Asian garden.
"It will stimulate the senses through tropical plants," said Mimi Feliciano, who took over the 547-bed Lincoln Park Renaissance Rehab and Nursing Home started 45 years ago by her late parents, Jerry and Dolores Turco. "It will have the ambiance of a spa/hotel, which is unlike any rehabilitation center ever built."
The $13 million center will also be a double asset to Lincoln Park, bringing in at least $100,000 to $150,000 each year in new tax dollars after a pending reassessment, and projecting the hiring of 50 to 75 new workers registered nurses, nurse's aides and therapists.
Other facilities on the so-called health campus off West Pinebrook Road are the Lincoln Park Care Center and Lincoln Park Hospice.
The center is Feliciano's brainchild. When she took over her parents' short and long-term nursing home seven years ago, she asked short-term patients what they wanted during their stay.
"The industry is changing," she said. "I came in with a fresh set of eyes and interviewed people. I learned that short-term or sub-acute patients don't want to be in a nursing home."
Although the center is on land zoned residential, town planners approved the application in December 2007 because "the applicant made a good case as to why it was a good project," said Joseph Maiella, borough administrator and planner. "It served the changing needs of the health industry and was going to bring in people from other towns. It was also with the understanding that they wouldn't increase the number of beds."
That meant making 60 more suites or private rooms, with beds transferred from the nursing home.
"It looks beautiful and is a great addition to the town," said Mayor David Runfeldt. "Some of the services they will provide will be a great advantage to the residents. My understanding is that they are going to open it to other towns. It's a win-win situation."
On the standard medical side, "the rehabilitation center provides complete inpatient and outpatient speech, occupational and physical rehabilitation services," said John Passuth, senior account supervisor and public relations officer. "Therapists will offer residents advanced rehabilitation when recovering from surgery, illness or injury."
On the agenda are community outreach programs to seniors where they can get medical information and socialization, screenings and evaluations. They can even invest in a "bank" where a person gets credit for services to others and can claim that help back when they need it themselves.
Then there are the special refinements: The 65,000-square-foot "state of the art" rehabilitation center will combine Eastern and Western medical practices to create a healing environment.
The short-term or subacute patients who stay in one of the 60 private rooms will be catered to in style, Feliciano said, adding "You're going to feel as if you are in a suite in a five-star hotel. I wanted to give people what they wanted, and what they said they wanted is privacy and to be away from long-term care patients. They don't want to feel as if they are in a nursing home."
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Luxury Surroundings May Help Ease the Pain at New Rehab Center in Lincoln Park
by Eugene Paik/For The Star-Ledger
Tuesday June 23, 2009, 7:22 PM
LINCOLN PARK -- With amenities like massages, a Japanese healing garden, a sauna, private suites and a beauty salon, a new rehab center in Lincoln Park is aiming to make life a little easier for patients who have a grueling recovery period ahead of them.
As in any rehab center, simple chores - ironing clothes, shopping for food and planting flowers - are physical challenges for those recovering from physical injuries as they try to ease back into what used to be their daily routines.
But the soon-to-open Jerry and Delores Turco Medical Rehab Center is also offering luxury surroundings, complete with a concierge and day spa, to its patients, according to center officials who offered a preview of the facility today.
"There's really no other place like this," said Toni Loyas, the corporate director of rehabilitation for the center, which is being marketed to baby boomers who want something more than a hospital environment. "You'll be amazed how a simple act becomes difficult when you have crutches."
The centerpiece of the facility is Rehab Road, a simulated neighborhood community which measures more than 2,000 square feet. In it, men and women with walkers can learn to swing a golf club again, practicing their putting around small hole in the front of the room. Patients learning how to unload groceries with a cane can walk over to a Ford Taurus and practice.
The new 65,000-square-feet rehab center is located on the Lincoln Park Healthcare Experience campus, which also features nursing homes, a hospice and another rehabilitation center.
This facility, according to center officials, is the only one of its kind in New Jersey, and they say its amenities distinguish it as one of a handful of pioneers nationwide in luxury rehab centers.
Officials from the state chapter of the National Rehabilitation Association and the New Jersey Hospital Association could not be reached for comment yesterday to verify those claims.
However, some of the scores of invited health-care officials touring the building yesterday were impressed by its opulence.
"I think with people who are 50- to 70-years-old, they're looking for a facility that is like a hotel environment," said Joan Beloff, director of community outreach for Chilton Memorial Hospital.
"The building has all the amenities of a five-star hotel," said Ralph Vitaro, the publisher and president of Drug Delivery Technology magazine. "It's a calming place."
Luxury may be a new trend for rehab centers, say officials at the center, who added that it doesn't accept patients until July 6 but already has seen a demand for rooms.
"People don't want to be somewhere sterile," said Mimi Feliciano, CEO of the center. "Especially the baby boomers - they want something elegant."
That's why Feliciano, the daughter of the late real-estate developer Jerry Turco Sr., spent more than two years on the project, which cost more than $10 million.
"This is what they want," she said. "They want things that are at a different level."
Eugene Paik is a reporter for the New Jersey Local News Service. He can be reached at (908) 243-6240 or epaik@njlns.com.
http://www.nj.com/news/local/index.ssf/2009/06/luxury_surrounds_may_help_ease.html
Tuesday June 23, 2009, 7:22 PM
LINCOLN PARK -- With amenities like massages, a Japanese healing garden, a sauna, private suites and a beauty salon, a new rehab center in Lincoln Park is aiming to make life a little easier for patients who have a grueling recovery period ahead of them.
As in any rehab center, simple chores - ironing clothes, shopping for food and planting flowers - are physical challenges for those recovering from physical injuries as they try to ease back into what used to be their daily routines.
But the soon-to-open Jerry and Delores Turco Medical Rehab Center is also offering luxury surroundings, complete with a concierge and day spa, to its patients, according to center officials who offered a preview of the facility today.
"There's really no other place like this," said Toni Loyas, the corporate director of rehabilitation for the center, which is being marketed to baby boomers who want something more than a hospital environment. "You'll be amazed how a simple act becomes difficult when you have crutches."
The centerpiece of the facility is Rehab Road, a simulated neighborhood community which measures more than 2,000 square feet. In it, men and women with walkers can learn to swing a golf club again, practicing their putting around small hole in the front of the room. Patients learning how to unload groceries with a cane can walk over to a Ford Taurus and practice.
The new 65,000-square-feet rehab center is located on the Lincoln Park Healthcare Experience campus, which also features nursing homes, a hospice and another rehabilitation center.
This facility, according to center officials, is the only one of its kind in New Jersey, and they say its amenities distinguish it as one of a handful of pioneers nationwide in luxury rehab centers.
Officials from the state chapter of the National Rehabilitation Association and the New Jersey Hospital Association could not be reached for comment yesterday to verify those claims.
However, some of the scores of invited health-care officials touring the building yesterday were impressed by its opulence.
"I think with people who are 50- to 70-years-old, they're looking for a facility that is like a hotel environment," said Joan Beloff, director of community outreach for Chilton Memorial Hospital.
"The building has all the amenities of a five-star hotel," said Ralph Vitaro, the publisher and president of Drug Delivery Technology magazine. "It's a calming place."
Luxury may be a new trend for rehab centers, say officials at the center, who added that it doesn't accept patients until July 6 but already has seen a demand for rooms.
"People don't want to be somewhere sterile," said Mimi Feliciano, CEO of the center. "Especially the baby boomers - they want something elegant."
That's why Feliciano, the daughter of the late real-estate developer Jerry Turco Sr., spent more than two years on the project, which cost more than $10 million.
"This is what they want," she said. "They want things that are at a different level."
Eugene Paik is a reporter for the New Jersey Local News Service. He can be reached at (908) 243-6240 or epaik@njlns.com.
http://www.nj.com/news/local/index.ssf/2009/06/luxury_surrounds_may_help_ease.html
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