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MARIAN HOME: READY FOR THE FUTURE

19-room wing added; $13.1 million investment respositions facility for the long view

-Messenger photos by Hans Madsen
The new entrance and foyer at the Marian Home features lots of space and light along with comfortable furniture for visits.

Just a bit more than three years ago, Marian Home, 2400 Sixth Ave. N., launched the construction phase of a massive expansion and renovation project. That major undertaking, which cost $13.1 million, is now finished.

On Sept. 27, 2018, a dedication ceremony was held to celebrate what Eric Halverson, Marian Home executive director, said is a successful reimagining of the nursing home.

“The significance of the project was to reposition us to have a nursing facility that is sustainable for the next 30 years with a new medical model of improving living arrangements,” he said.

A new 19-room wing was added.

New, more intimate dining areas either in or near the Marian Home’s five residential wings were created.

-Messenger photo by Hans Madsen Marian Home activities and housing director Marsha Foster looks over the Summit Rehab area. The new facility is spacious.

A chapel that can seat 100 was built.

Meeting and activity rooms as well as office spaces were constructed.

A much-expanded, 3,000-square-foot therapy center called Summit Rehab has been established near the Marian Home’s main entrance.

The four original residential wings have been completely renovated. A major change is that more of the rooms are now singles and all have shower facilities.

Halverson said the Marian Home can now accommodate 85 residents. That’s down from its previous capacity of 97. There are now 49 singles and 18 doubles. He said some of the doubles will most likely be converted to singles at some point in the future.

Halverson said bringing about this major transformation of the Marian Home has been a long process. The planning began about five years ago. Construction started in August 2015. He said, however, that the completed project has made all the hard work by so many people well worth the effort.

“I’m extremely pleased — ecstatic,” Halverson said. “We’re very happy with the end result.”

He said the residents have also shown enthusiasm for all the changes and improvements.

“They are extremely satisfied,” he said. “They like the spaciousness of the single rooms. They like increased independence and dignity with the dining. There are not so many people that they dine with now. We’ve seen that their meal intakes have improved with the satisfaction of the meal experience. Happy moms and dads are happy children, so their families are satisfied with that.”

The future

The upgrading of the Marian Home’s therapy capabilities will soon lead to the addition of outpatient services to the extensive inpatient care already in place.

The therapy component is being called Summit Rehab. It has its own entrance not far from the main entrance to the Marian Home.

“It’s improved with a larger space and more equipment,” Halverson said. “There’s a designated speech therapy room, designated occupational therapy area and designated physical therapy area.”

He said staffing is being added and that an array of outpatient therapy services will be operational within the next six months.

“Any individual who has had any experience with the Marian Home can come back here for outpatient therapy,” Halverson said. “They can continue therapy with us while they are living at home. It gives them familiarity with the therapist — that trust, that bond that was established with the inpatient experience.”

The outpatient therapy clinic also will be available to people who have never been patients at the Marian Home.

“Anyone who has not had anything to do with us who has a hip issue, shoulder issue, knee issue — any type of physical or occupational or speech therapy that they would have gone somewhere in the community for, they now have a choice to come here,” Halverson said.

Looking much further ahead, Halverson said an additional major expansion is likely.

“What’s next on the horizon is our goal to head north and connect that new 19-bed wing to a new assisted living complex,” he said. “We currently own 13 of the 16 properties between Seventh Avenue North and Eighth Avenue North on that block and it’s our goal to build an independent assisted living complex. We would then have a full continuum of care.”

That project is still being conceptualized, but could become a reality in the not too distant future.

“I am hoping that we will start that process within the next three years,” Halverson said. “It’s very exciting.”

However those plans evolve, Halverson said the core goal at the Marian Home will remain to provide exceptional care.

“What is of utmost importance is the care,” he said. “We want people to choose the Marian Home for our care and to be satisfied — short-term, long-term.”

The Marian Home expansion and update was a project nearly four years in the making.

It was first publicly announced in late 2014.

Plans for the renovation project were outlined for the Fort Dodge Board of Adjustment on Dec. 2, 2014.

The project was divided into two parts, with the first part focusing on a facility that had been built in 1975 in order to upgrade it to meet modern needs of senior citizens.

The second part was planned to consist of building independent living and assisted living apartments north of the current facility at 2400 Sixth Ave. N.

Jim Kesterson, who serves on the board of directors, estimated the project would cost $12 – $13 million.

At the time, residents of the skilled care portion of the facility share their rooms with at least one other person and go to eat in a large central dining room. Kesterson said the renovations will create private rooms, each with its own bathroom, and a series of smaller dining areas that would seat 10 to 12 people.

Plans also called for the construction of a new lobby and cafe on the Sixth Avenue North side of the building. The central dining room will become an area for large gatherings. A new 3,000 square foot therapy room will also be created.

The Board of Adjustment unanimously approved the Marian Home’s request for a variance from the zoning law that requires its buildings to be 20 feet back from the property line on any side that has a street in front of it.

The project was completed in phases, with different wings of the facility opening as they were completed.

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