Pennsylvania Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Blog
Early in December we blogged about the pending purchase of Laurel Crest Rehabilitation & Special Care Center of Ebensburg by Grane Healthcare of Pittsburgh. On Jan. 2 the AltoonaMirror.com reported that the sale was finalized and that the facility has a new name: Cambria Care Center.
The new owners have planned $2 million in upgrades, including assisted living apartments and an Alzheimer’s unit. The assisted-living apartments are planned as “senior-friendly efficiency apartments” that would include nursing assistance for residents who may need help with activities such as bathing, dressing, and taking medication. Scheduled for 2010, a state-of-the-art center for the memory impaired will provide intensive levels of care for patients with Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related illnesses.
Grane owns a dozen nursing homes across the state and has similiar Alzheimer’s centers throughout western Pennsylvania. However, this will be Grane’s first Alzheimer’s center in this region.
Local officials have noted that being managed by a private company will allow the facility to offer programs that the county couldn’t afford to implement. “The home will be better off for those who may need it in the future,” said President Commissioner P.J. Stevens.
Some changes have already taken place. Grane named Owen T. Larkin, the home’s assitant administrator, as the facility’s new head administrator. Larkin worked as food service director from June 1996 through mid-1999; as assistant administrator at The Commons in Squirrel Hill in Allegheny County; and the Presbyterian Home in Johnstown.
Future changes include: wireless internet access, the addition of new flat-screen televisions, new patient beds, and a switch to an on-site electronic medical record system.