Kansas Health Institute | Information For Policy Makers. Health for Kansans.

TOPEKA — The Kansas Department on Aging has cited six nursing homes for their success in creating more home-like environments and embracing the concepts of person-centered care.

“These are nursing homes that are giving residents control over their environments, control over their daily lives,” said Barb Conant, a spokeswoman for KDoA. “They’re turning medical-model institutions into homes where real people live, and if these people want to get up and fix themselves a sandwich, they can. If they want to sleep in until 8 a.m., they can do that too.”

The six recipients of KDoA’s PEAK Awards:

● Bethesda Home, Goessel;

● Lone Tree Retirement Center, Meade;

● Kansas Masonic Home, Wichita;

● Brewster Health Center, Topeka (2008, 2007)

● Evergreen Community of Johnson County, Olathe

● Parkside Homes, Hillsboro.

The Parkside, Evergreen and Brewster homes each received PEAK Awards in 2008; Brewster won in 2007 as well.

PEAK stands for Promoting Excellent Alternatives in Kansas nursing homes.

Nursing homes are not required to be less institutional in their operations and environments, but they are “strongly encouraged to in a lot of the regulations,” Conant said.

Nursing homes apply to be for considered for the award. KDoA personnel determine whether the recognition is warranted.

Kansas Masonic Home has been overhauling its approach to resident care for about 18 months, said Shawn Sullivan, the facility’s executive director. “We’ve made dozens and dozens of changes. I couldn’t begin to list them all.”

Sullivan said residents, family members and direct care staff now have a say in dining hall operations, activity planning and who’s hired.

“We’ve expanded the menu choices, we’ve made the dining hall a more pleasurable place to be and we’ve made it more accessible,” he said. “Our residents can order off menus now for more extended periods of time for all three meals. They all don’t have to eat at the same time.

“In the activities area, we have it set up so residents are deciding what they want to do rather than just going along with the normal kinds of institutional things that were offered,” Sullivan said.

Lone Tree Retirement Center installed computers with web cameras that let residents hold long-distance video chats or phone calls and see loved ones on the other end.

“We’ve got someone talking to a daughter in South Carolina right now,” Lone Tree administrator Sheila Anne Brown said Friday. “The farthest away person we’ve had, I think, was a resident’s son in Hawaii.”

Residents, she said, also get to “schedule their days” with activities of their choosing.

“The biggest change, I guess, has been philosophical,” Brown said. “We had a big meeting and we said ‘OK, what is our purpose here?’We pretty much agree we wanted to give people choices and then somebody said ‘to make memories.’ It kind of stuck.”

“We’ve had people come in and say they were expecting this to a place where people who are sick and old come to die, but that’s not what it’s like here,” Brown said. “We have fun.”

KDoA Secretary Martin Kennedy plans to present each home with its award later this summer.

KDoA created the PEAK Awards in 2002. Since then, more than 40 homes have been cited.

In Kansas, there are 342 nursing homes.

A listing of past PEAK Award winners is available by clicking here.