A Massachusetts-based provider has found a way to serve residents longer in assisted living if they want to age in place but are facing increasing health needs through enhanced care neighborhoods.
Salmon Health & Retirement launched its enhanced care neighborhoods for assisted living residents who need long-term nursing care but prefer a less institutionalized setting. The neighborhoods — located on the Westborough, MA-based provider’s Natick, Westborough and Medway campuses — provide advanced care within private, residential apartments.
Salmon Chief Marketing Officer Jenna Anderson told McKnight’s Senior Living that the enhanced care neighborhood is a dedicated segment in its care continuum that allows older adults to “age in place in a whole new way.”
“Many of our assisted living residents want to remain in their communities, although their needs have increased beyond the limit of our assisted living care levels,” Anderson said. “Enhanced care neighborhoods were created to help those individuals remain in their comfortable and familiar settings while receiving the care they need.”
Anderson said the new service level adds another component to Salmon’s continuum of care, which includes independent living, assisted living and memory care, rehabilitation and skilled nursing, private care, home care and hospice.
Within the enhanced care neighborhoods, staff members provide 24 / 7 emergency response, two-person assist and lifts, modified diets, limited medication administration, and support of activities of daily living.
Limited medication administration will be provided by a practitioner or a registered or licensed nurse in accordance with state law. In Massachusetts, Anderson said, a nurse only can administer medication from an original, pharmacy-filled and pharmacy-labeled container. Licensed nurses employed by the community can administer non-injectable medications, including topicals, inhalers, eye and ear drops, medicated patches, as-necessary oxygen and suppositories.
Medical conditions requiring nursing services such as injection of insulin or other drugs used routinely for disease maintenance therapy, wound care or other skilled nursing services will be offered through the Salmon Home Care Visiting Nurse Association and billed separately.
“Our enhanced care neighborhood was designed to fill a gap within the assisted living space,” Salmon CEO Matt Salmon said in a statement. “We heard from our residents and their families the need and desire for advanced care within a comfortable, homelike setting that didn’t feel overwhelmingly institutional, as many nursing homes do.”
Salmon at Medway, the provider’s newest community, has 18 apartments in its enhanced care neighborhood. The Natick campus has 23 apartments, and the Westborough campus has 25 apartments, in their enhanced care neighborhoods.
