Copley at Stoughton

Skilled Nursing and Rehabilitation Center

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MassHealth an Incredible Program for Many of Our Residents

by Steven Tyer

MassHealth is a safety net for many of our residents. The state agency oversees Medicaid, the federal program that provides health coverage for low-income individuals. That includes nursing homes, assisting individuals with the monthly cost of their care that they would not have otherwise been able to afford.

However, there has been an alarming trend in MassHealth funding lately. Perhaps you’ve heard that the rates paid to nursing homes are based on 2007 costs. That means despite rising costs, all nursing homes caring for MassHealth residents still receive payments calculated on costs that they’ve incurred over 12 years ago. Copley has the same cost increases in labor, utilities, and food that you have in your own home – just on a much larger scale.

Tara Gregorio, the president of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, and Naomi Prendergast, president and CEO of D’Youville Life and Wellness Community in Lowell have “sounded the alarm” about rates being too low. “This is a severely underfunded system,” Gregorio told CommonWealth Magazine’s The Codcast. They are calling for a restructuring of the program and funding based on more current costs. You can listen to the whole podcast and read an article based on their conversation here.

Copley at Stoughton fully supports this initiative. We see the tremendous impact MassHealth has for our residents and their families. But many nursing homes in Massachusetts are on the verge of bankruptcy, which will have an impact on many more residents and the industry as a whole.

Thankfully, that’s not the case for Copley at Stoughton. I credit our staff 100% for the great job they do ensuring our residents receive the care they need. In a previous blog post, I talked about how our staff routinely goes above and beyond budgets to provide outstanding care. This is part of the reason why we are consistently ranked one of the “Best Nursing Homes in the United States.” 

We believe in a strong skilled nursing home industry. We are optimistic that MassHealth will adjust their payment structure soon, thanks to the hard work of people like Tara Gregorio and Naomi Prendergast. But no matter what the outcome, Copley will remain a strong community partner providing care that goes above and beyond.

You can find out more about applying for MassHealth for your skilled nursing care home needs HERE. 

The Meaning of “Loved One” at Copley

by Steven Tyer

End-of-life care is so difficult, especially when your loved ones are no longer able to make their own choices. My father, who recently passed, was a resident at Copley at Stoughton. Having him here at Copley helped me look at the facility from both sides: as an administrator and as a family member of a resident. These insights guide me and help make Copley the skilled nursing facility that it is today.

I was lucky that it was a short walk up the hall to stop by for a meal or just to talk. The staff members here were great with him too, and not just because he was my father. They take good care of every resident, providing them with all that they need whether it’s a helping hand or offering a hand to hold. Residents are never alone at Copley. I’m extremely pleased with the level of attention our staff gives residents from day-to-day activities or end-of-life care. That’s where a community-based facility really excels.

I trust that other family members feel that community spirit at Copley, too. I was struck with the realization about how many physicians choose Copley for their loved ones. Doctors have their ear to the ground, and they know which nursing homes are which. The fact they choose Copley tells me we’re on the right track – being part of a community is truly important to people.

Saying goodbye though is never easy. Obviously, that was especially true with my father – it was one of the toughest things I’ve had to do. But it made me realize how connected the staff and I are with all residents here. They are our friends, our neighbors, and our loved ones, too. They are never simply names on a file folder that get shuffled from one box to another.

Did I make all the right choices for my father? I’d like to believe I did. I do know that I was proud he could call Copley home. He was constantly surrounded by people who cared about him. Could we ask for anything better?

Caring for Older Adults Means Keeping Everyone Active and Engaged

by Steven Tyer

I asked our activities director, Cheryl Woodward, to assist me in writing the blog this month. Getting older doesn’t have to mean getting less active! In fact it’s quite the opposite. Older adults who are less physically and socially active are at higher risk of losing the ability to do everyday routines. That includes everything from walking and dressing to dialing a telephone.

Exercise affects the mental well-being of older adults, too. There is a lot of evidence to suggest that lack of physical activity can lead to a greater risk of dementia-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s. A good fitness program, on the other hand, can help delay or even avoid symptoms of these diseases. Yet at least one study found that older adults in long-term facilities spend up to 65% of their time alone in their rooms.

I can tell you, that is not the case at Copley at Stoughton!

We do everything possible to help our residents stay fit and active for their physical, mental, and social well-being. Our Activities team, led Ms. Woodward, developed the “Fitness Fun” program with activities designed to keep our residents active and engaged. These include group calisthenics, guided walks in and around Copley, gardening, dancing, and other activities. Even simple things like encouraging residents to walk to the cafeteria at mealtimes rather than take a wheelchair can go a long way to increasing quality of life.

Regular outings are big social events here which usually have some sort of physical element such as walking. Other activities at Copley include cooking, arts and crafts, and cognitive games and puzzles. These are great ways of keeping the mind active as well.

The most important thing is that we do these activities together. Copley is a little community, and we encourage everyone to participate and interact socially. I like to think of our community as that neighborly house we all envision retiring in, but with all the comfort and convenience Copley offers.

Activities are important for our short-stay residents, too. Getting rehab after surgery or an injury can be difficult physically, mentally, and emotionally. This is especially true when you are away from home. Our professional Activities staff at Copley helps the time pass a lot faster.

If you have any questions about our Fitness Fun program or any of our lifestyle programming, please feel free to contact me anytime. We can even arrange for a tour so you can see for yourself how Copley keeps residents active and engaged. 

Visits Keep Loved Ones Young

by Steven Tyer

The families of our residents often ask me what they can do to help their loved ones. It’s one of the easiest questions because it’s simple: visit as much as possible.

We do our best to provide a family atmosphere here at Copley.  We offer engaging activities to encourage socialization among our residents. But nothing replaces family, and that’s why visits are so important. This is particularly important if your loved one has lost a spouse. The grieving process is intensified with the stress of life changes and particularly moving into a new “home.”  Visits from familiar faces help alleviate the feeling of loneliness.

Visits also keep residents engaged with the world around them. This includes emotionally engaged as well as mentally engaged – it’s all interconnected. Planning future visits gives them another activity to look forward to. Try to plan for outings if possible; not just visits at Copley. It may take some extra arranging depending on a medical condition, but I can tell you from personal experience that it is well worth it.

When you do visit, make a point to bring something to show: a grandchild’s artwork from school or pictures from a recent vacation. You can also bring family photos on visits from when they were younger, or old letters and cards to help them remember earlier days.

Bringing a pet is a great idea, especially if he or she used to have one themselves. You’ll often see dogs walking the grounds at Copley with residents, or simply sitting up on their bed. We are learning more and more about the therapeutic value of pets for long-term care residents and our short-term guests recovering at Copley.

Visits from family members – and pets – help keep loved ones young and the family bonds strong. If you have any questions about planned visits to Copley at Stoughton, ideas for activities, or our pet policies, please feel free to contact me directly. I’d be happy to discuss!

 

Making Copley Home for the Holidays

by Steven Tyer

You can always tell the holidays are coming at Copley. We’ve finished putting up the decorations, and nine of our talented artist residents have put together the finishing touches on our annual Winter Mural. The unveiling, which has become a Copley tradition, was held on December 12th this year.

December is a special time; the decorations, the festivities, the endless comings and goings of family. We go to extra lengths to recreate that holiday feeling for our residents and short-term rehab guests. Cheryl Woodward, our Activities Director, amazes us every year with her decorating and in addition, she spends an incredible amount of time making every holiday a unique celebration by arranging a variety of events. This month’s activities included a visit to the Enchanted Village, several sing-along events, Christmas socials, a gathering with Rabbi Foust, bilingual services, and other religious observances and festivities.

We know it is not easy being separated from family and loved ones during the holidays.  So we do what we can to ensure that Copley is our residents’ home away from home.

From all of us at Copley – Happy Holidays to you and yours, and our best wishes for a healthy, peaceful 2019.

What It Means to Be the “Best”

by By Steven Tyer

Last month, the U.S. News & World Report released its list of the “Best Nursing Homes in the United States” – and Copley at Stoughton is proud to make the list! In fact, we were one of just 736 facilities in the country to be rated “High Performing” in both Overall rating and Short-Stay Rehabilitation out of 15,000 facilities.

What I like most about these awards is that they are based on hard numbers. Many awards are subjective including awards based on a voting system. Don’t get me wrong – it is rewarding when your clients and their families vote you as number one! But what makes the U.S. News rating system different is that it uses existing and publicly available data from several official sources so that their rankings are much more objective. These sources include federal Nursing Home Compare, health inspections, quality star ratings, and nurse staffing figures, among others.

The U.S. News gives ratings in two categories: Overall rating and Short-Stay Rehabilitation. Copley at Stoughton is one of the less than 5% that received a “High Performing” rating in both categories.

Of course, the deeper story is how we do so well to score so highly in all those areas in the first place. It doesn’t happen by accident.  Contributing to our success is the fact that Copley is locally owned and operated, so we have a deeper connection to the community we serve. Additionally all our employees are in-house – we do not contract any services. Not only does this create a work environment where our staff is committed to our residents and rehab guests, it also allows us to manage more effectively. We also base our nurse staffing figures on what is best for our clients, not just what is best for our bottom line. Budget is always a concern, as it should be, and we certainly run our skilled nursing facility efficiently. But we won’t sacrifice patient care through staffing cuts or lower quality of care to meet our budget goals. Quite the opposite – we set our budget based on what we need to provide great care.

It’s these client-centered decisions that we make every day that help make the difference.

There are certain expectations from skilled nursing care facilities, and of course quality of care is at the top. Or at least that’s what we believe at Copley at Stoughton. We are honored to be recognized as High Performing in both categories – it feels like a validation for all the hard work we’ve done over the years. Shouldn’t every facility operate at the best level possible for their clients? That’s been our philosophy from the beginning.

Find out more about the U.S. News & World Report rating system.

No Math Can Measure Family

by Steven Tyer

The other day I noticed Cheryl, our activities director, helping one of our residents with one of her creative projects.  Cheryl has been our activities director for over 10 years and it struck me at that moment that many of our staff have been at Copley for a decade or more.   Jill C., Jenn E., Kathy C., Chris S., Claire F., Marie R., Jill O., Evelyn R. and Gislene F., have all been at Copley for over 20 years!  I work with another group of 15 seriously dedicated staff that have been at Copley for over 15 years.  I personally will be at Copley for 8 years this coming February and still feel like the new kid on the block.  It is a great feeling to have as the administrator since staff turnover is notoriously high in healthcare facilities.

So what makes us different? Cheryl has said that Copley at Stoughton feels more like a home than a workplace, and that we all feel like family rather than co-workers and residents.  I’ll admit, this fills me with pride. It’s a validation that our philosophy of care has a positive impact on our employees as well as our residents.

Copley at Stoughton is one of the last privately owned nursing homes in the state. More than that, we do everything we can to hire directly from the community. As many of you know, I was born and raised in Stoughton. I think any care facility works best if it’s community-based – care-focused programs built by the community, for the community. Long-term care facilities owned by large companies have a completely different focus. It’s not that they don’t care about their residents; they do. But that type of environment changes the experience for the resident and the employees as well.

The reason you see such a high staff turnover in this industry is that you can get burned out too easily. Long-term care and rehabilitation can be emotionally exhausting for care professionals. Organizations need to provide support, not add more stress. We have an open door policy here for our employees. We want to know how they are doing, and how we are doing to make sure their needs are being met and they feel appreciated.  We are committed to providing a level of support to our employees so they know we value them professionally and personally.

The bottom line for me is that you cannot quantify care. When staff focuses on providing outstanding care rather than all the care that fits within a budget, our residents are in better hands. And when administration treats staff like family instead of replaceable parts in a system, you get great staff members who treat our residents like family, too.

 

Importance of Community

by Steven Tyer

I recently had the distinct honor of receiving the Stoughton Chamber of Commerce “Business Person of the Year” award. It was truly humbling to be recognized by the Chamber. I am privileged to have the good fortune to have a career centered on my community.

Copley at Stoughton is one of the few locally owned and operated Skilled Nursing facilities in the state which gives us the luxury of having strong personal connections with our staff, residents and their families as well as control over how our facility runs. They are our neighbors, friends, past teachers and coaches, and our families.

Serving our community members with whom we share values and experiences allows us to make the process of post-acute rehab much more personal. There is a mutual understanding, respect and a genuine concern over each and every person who is with us – short or long term.

Serving our community is a major part of Copley’s mission. We are proud to be able to support the SOLA initiative, Stoughton school field trips and many other town programs. We focus on the values of community, and that is what we strive to uphold inside and outside our doors.

Whether someone is looking at Copley for themselves, a family member, or is just curious about post-acute Skilled Nursing as a career, our doors are open to any and everyone to visit. Stoughton has given us a wonderful home, and we hope our efforts to support the community continue to show our gratitude.

 

Common Misconception

by Steven Tyer

It was just an average morning as I stood in line at the local Dunkin’ Donuts waiting to order my coffee when I noticed a group of friends catching up. There were two younger people in their late 20’s and one older gentleman. I overheard the gentleman updating the group about a loved one who was now living in a Skilled Nursing facility. The collective response from the younger ones was “oh, that is so sad.” Obviously, this response caught my attention and I felt immediately bothered by it.

There are common misconceptions associated with nursing homes. The mainstream media seems to only focus on stories of homes with less than desirable environments offering sub-par care. But not all homes are created equal and while I cannot speak for every Skilled Nursing home, I can speak for Copley. We invest a majority of our energy into making sure the activities, events, outings and meals we provide for our residents are mentally, socially and physically stimulating. Many elderly people living at home lack social engagement, physical activity and proper nutrition because their age and bodies limit how much they can do. For many of our residents, they are actually given the opportunity to do MORE when they enter Copley. Here they are given the support and resources they need to safely and successfully make the most of their life.

In fact, just last week, a group of both staff and residents from Copley spent the entire day at the Massachusetts State House advocating on behalf of all our staff and residents. We had a wonderful day travelling through the halls, visiting our elected officials.

We have regularly scheduled art classes that challenge our residents and outings to local restaurants, casinos, and shops. Our beautifully furnished patio gives our residents a place to enjoy fresh air and sunshine. We regularly host parties and outings for our residents and their families and offer delicious made-to-order meals daily based off of specific nutritional needs. Our goal is to create a sense of community so everyone who enters our building feels like they are our part of our family.

While there are common myths associated with long-term care, the reality is that with a little research, you can find a home that is welcoming, caring, safe, stimulating and one where smiles far outweigh frowns. To my friends at Dunkin Donuts, I invite you to stop by and visit us at Copley and see first we’re far from a sad environment.

There’s No Place like Home

by Steven Tyer

After a stay in the hospital, you’ll most likely feel eager to get home, but post-acute care is often necessary for a successful rehabilitation. While we are committed to getting you back on your feet and home as soon as possible, our goal is also to make sure your stay with us is comfortable and your rehabilitation successful.

Why would you want to spend your time recovering in a hospital setting, when Medicare gives the CHOICE to stay somewhere else? Our Rehabilitation Program contains separate physical, occupational, and speech therapy areas and is equipped to deal with a range of conditions resulting from elective orthopedic procedures, injury or debilitating acute/chronic illnesses. If you have a planned procedure and rehabilitation is needed for recovery, it makes sense to choose a facility in close proximity to family and friends with amenities that will help aid your recovery both mentally and physically.

The mission of our rehab program is to help our guests reach their maximum capabilities, independence, and enjoyment of life. We offer, for residents who would like to participate and are feeling up to it; cooked-to-order meals served in our dining room where guests’ families are welcome to join, a beauty salon/barber shop so guests can get back to some of their normal activities, daily practice going up and down the stairs, assistance with bathing and getting dressed, a furnished outdoor patio to get some fresh air and much more! By partaking in these activities our guests are preparing themselves for a successful and smooth transition home.

As a private, locally owned company, our senior management team is on-site, giving us the opportunity to assure a clean, safe and individually focused experience for each and every individual. Yes, we offer the same as what most other Skilled Nursing Facilities offer but what sets us apart as an individual facility is that our management team has as much experience as anyone in this industry, we do not outsource any of our services, we have wonderful relationships with the local hospitals, physicians, and our referrals, which often makes our guests double as our neighbors!

With the healthcare industry always changing, there is nothing worse than having to make a medical decision under stress, so prepare in advance by researching your different options. Our best customers are the ones that visit us for no reason! We encourage you to come in for a tour to learn more about Copley and get some of your questions answered before you or your loved ones need to make a decision for post-acute care.

Give us a call at 781-341-2300 to book your tour today!