Monday, July 30, 2012CHAMPION TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Construction of the Windsor House assisted-living home in Champion Township could be completed as early as Sept. 1.
Danny Rowland, director of marketing for Windsor House Inc., confirmed the date.
The increased demand for assisted living prompted the company to build the home, Champion Estates on Champion Avenue.
“This is a needed area for an assisted living community,” says Rowland. Windsor House, headquartered in Girard, broke ground last Aug. 1 on the complex projected to cost in the $6 million range.
Champion Estates will serve Champion, Warren and neighboring communities. It will offer the residents a greater degree of independence than those in its nearby nursing home, which provides skilled-nursing care 24/7. “Residents of Champion Estates are free to come and go as they please, while getting assistance with medications,” Rowland says. “These people here can really function and take care of themselves.”
Champion Estates will provide residents with “the whole gamut in assisted-living care.” This includes three meals a day, housekeeping, laundry, transportation, help with daily living, a 24-hour emergency call system, and nurses on staff 24/7.
The first floor of the three-story structure offers commons areas such as a library, chapel, private dining room, exercise room, beauty salon and barbershop, and an activity room that offers social and recreational activities such as bingo, pool, and card games.
The home offers 56 apartments, most of them on the second and third floors. Each apartment has a kitchenette with refrigerator and microwave oven, heating and air-conditioning, a walk-in shower, cable television and wheelchair accessibility. Single- and double- occupancy apartment will be available on all three floors. Rents range from $2,700 to $4,200.
Some 30 people will be hired at Champion Estates to care for the new residents. As construction progressed, the number of people expressing interest in living there grew.
Families will be contacted once administrators are hired, which should take about 30 days. Rowland hopes to have residents moved in by the end of September.
Windsor House Inc., born 53 years ago, offers 11 skilled- nursing homes four assisted-living communities (including Champion) that employ 1,600 and are home to 1,150 residents.
Windsor House offers skilled nursing, care for Alzheimer’s disease, and rehabilitation to long-term and, now more common, short-term residents.
“Business is great. It’s strong. It’s a changing environment because of our short-term rehabilitation center, Rowland says. “In the past people used to come and stay in the nursing home. I’d say we have a lot more people coming to us for their rehabilitation needs and then being discharged back out into the community.”
Windsor introduced Home Health three years ago. “If they’ve come in to the nursing home, or if they’ve been discharged from the hospital to home, we have Home Health staff that will come there,” Rowland explains. The staff provides physical, occupational, and speech therapy as well as help reminding patient to take their medications on schedule.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.