News
Celebrating Our Dedicated Volunteers, April 21-26, 2013
St. Martin's celebrates our dedicated volunteers during Volunteer Appreciation Week. We are grateful to the many individuals, groups, churches and organizations that make significant contributions and we thank you for helping us grow with purpose.
St. Martin's Community Impact in 2012
St. Martin's is committed to serving the community through a comprehensive social accountability program providing residential heathcare and retirement services in Birmingham.
We also fulfill our responsibility to the community at-large through partnering and supporting other service organizations. Whether it is offering free use of our facilities, creating education and internship opportunitites, or donating food and supplies to those less fortunate, we see our community involvement as an extension of our mission.
"Sweet 16 is magic number for specialty care"
by Yann Ranaivo (Birmingham Business Journal)
A new state rule has triggered a wave of projects worth millions of dollars at assisted living communities in Birmingham.
St. Martin's in the Pines has announced plans to add 16 specialty care (Alzheimer's and Dementia care) assisted living beds at it's facility.
Responding to the Changing Landscape of Health Care in 2013
As the population demographics continue to change with baby boomers reaching retirement age, St. Martin's will continue to evolve to meed their needs. Amidst the increase demand for care services and long term support for seniors comes the increasing burden on government payment sources like Medicare and Medicaid.
The Cottages at St. Martin’s Topping Out
St. Martin places the final beam on top of newest Green House Cottage with traditional “topping out” ceremony.
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2011 Annual Report
Click here to read the St. Martin's 2011 Annual Report.
The Business of Caregiving : The Cottages, St. Martin's in the Pines (PHI)
The Business of Caregiving is a series of case studies that showcases exemplary employers in the eldercare/disability services industry. The organizations featured in this series have been selected to illustrate a “quality care through quality jobs” approach to sustaining and growing a long-term care business. All case studies, along with slide shows and podcasts, are available online at: www.PHInational.org/casestudies. The development of these case studies, along with web-based best practice descriptions, have been funded by the Hitachi Foundation (www.HitachiFoundation.org).
To read the St. Martin’s case study, click here.
St. Martin's in the Pines Joins Caring Communities Insurance Company
Libertyville, IL: January 1, 2011 - Effective today, St. Martin's in the Pines of Birmingham, AL has become a Member of Caring Communities, a Reciprocal Risk Retention Group which provides liability insurance, education, and risk management services for the nation's leading not-for-profit continuing care retirement communities (CCRC) and aging services providers.
“On behalf of the Members, Staff, and Board of Directors of Caring Communities we are proud to announce St. Martin’s in the Pines, a leading continuing care retirement community, as our newest member, “said Caring Communities President & CEO Jim Caldwell. “We are excited to form this strategic partnership with Terry Rogers, President & CEO, Mike Faulkner, Chief Financial Officer, and the St. Martin’s team as one of our 31 owner organizations. We look forward to a lasting relationship for the benefit of their community and goals.“
“We are honored to be part of the Caring Communities organization, “said Terry Rogers, “Our management team is excited to partner with other retirement communities across the country with like services, values, and missions. Caring Communities’ focus on enterprise-wide risk management services was particularly important in our decision to join as well as the sound financial performance since its beginning, “ added Terry. “We view our membership as a strategic investment in the future of our mission to serve the aging population.”
Caring Communities, with over 400 communities nationwide, represents a long term strategic opportunity for leading not for profit, mission based, aging services providers to work with the industry’s innovators and leaders- to further their mission in creating the safest environments and best risk management practices for their residents and employees
About St. Martin’s in the Pines
St. Martin’s, located in Birmingham, Alabama is a leading not-for-profit, faith-based organization serving the needs of the aging through its St. Martin’s in the Pines Retirement Community and its in-home care and assistive device service, St. Martin’s At Home.
Founded in 1955 by the Episcopal Foundation of Jefferson County, the organization focuses on innovative residential living and in-home care including skilled nursing, assisted living, independent living, Alzheimer’s care, and The Cottages, a new approach to nursing home care.
For more information, please visit www.stmartins.ws
About Caring Communities
A.M Best Rated A- Excellent, Caring Communities, a Reciprocal Risk Retention Group, is the leading Member owned provider of professional, general and excess liability insurance protection, education and risk management services for leading not‐for‐profit Continuing Care Retirement Communities and Senior Independent Living Organizations. As a risk retention group, Caring Communities is owned and governed by its Members.
For more information, please visit www.caringcomm.org.
"St. Martin's in the Pines plans to add cottage concept to nursing home"
by Stan Diel (The Birmingham News)
St. Martin's in the Pines, an east Birmingham nursing home, is planning to spend $5 million to build the second phase of its "Green House" community.
The concept replaces the traditional nursing home with "cottages" where smaller numbers of residents live under the care of nursing assistants.
"The goal is to de-institutionalize nursing home care," said Terry Rogers, St. Martin's president and chief executive officer.
The Episcopal church-affiliated nursing home spent $11 million on the first phase of the project in 2008, moving 60 residents out of the traditional facility and in to two, three-story structures with an autonomous community on each floor.
The second phase, which still must be approved by state regulators, would move another 30 residents into three new cottages.
Documents filed with the state's Certificate of Need Review Board indicate it faces no opposition from other health care and nursing home companies. If the plan is approved as expected at next Wednesday's CON board meeting, construction likely will begin some time next year, Rogers said.
In the Green House concept nursing assistants handle chores including cooking, light housekeeping and managing activities for residents in each of the 10-resident units. Other medical professionals, including nurses, make rounds but are not permanently stationed in the living quarters.
The system was developed by Dr. William Thomas, a New York geriatrician who tired of what he saw as institutionalized traditional nursing homes.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided a grant in 2005 to spread the concept.
To reinforce the concept of nursing assistants' responsibility for the cottages, a nursing assistant is called a "shahbaz," a Persian word meaning "royal falcon." Residents are called "elders" instead of patients.
The concept has proven popular with residents in the first phase, Rogers said.
"It's just a new way to think about nursing home care," he said.
"Putting Life in Nursing Homes" by Terry Rogers
Loneliness, helplessness and boredom. These are the three plagues existing in today’s nursing homes according to Dr. Bill Thomas, a geriatrician and founder of the Eden Alternative and THE GREEN HOUSE® Project aimed at changing the culture of long term care.
So what is "culture-change" in long-term care? Simply said, it is putting the elders living in nursing homes first. The system, or culture, in nursing homes today focuses more on efficiency and meeting state and federal regulations rather than focusing on the wants and desires of those living there. The result for the elders is loneliness, helplessness and boredom. The culture-change movement’s intent is to replace this system with one that recognizes and engages elders in all aspects of life, replacing the three plagues with meaning, worth and dignity. Rather than running "institutions" that provide medical care, the intent is to provide a home where elders continue to enjoy a high quality of life and at the same time receive the care they need.
St. Martin’s has adopted The Green House model of care. The Green House model changes the architecture from large institutional design to smaller scale residential design. To change the culture though takes more than new buildings. In the Green House model staff roles change. The most important positions become those working directly with the elders. The Certified Nursing Assistant receive additional culinary and team management training and become what is called a "Shahbaz", a new term used in the Green House model, in order to move away from the old institutional roles and titles. Elders living in a Green House home maintain choice; choices for what they eat, when they get out of bed, what activities they do, what kind of bed they sleep in, etc. Institutions by design are regimented so giving people power of choice doesn’t work so well. But in a Green House home the smaller scale gives the Shahbaz an opportunity to build relationships with the elders under his or her care and the needs of the elders are met individually.
To begin our organizational culture-change, St. Martin’s built two, 3-story Cottages in 2007. Each floor consists of a 10-bedroom Green House home. In total St. Martin’s has replaced 60 of its traditional nursing home rooms with the new Cottages.
We have had tremendous success after operating the Cottages for two years now. Elders are happy, they are engaged in running their house and they are enjoying more visits from family and friends. We are working toward Phase Two now with plans to construct another 3-story Cottage for another 30 elders.
As the culture of long-term care changes, St. Martin’s has taken a leadership position. Change is not easy, leading change is even more difficult. St. Martin’s staff and board members are committed to making a difference in the way we care for elders. Our hope is that other organizations will follow with their own plans to de-institutionalize elder care in America. Nursing homes today are places where elders "exist", St. Martin’s is building homes where elders will "thrive" with control, choice, privacy, and dignity.
Aging Services: The Not-For-Profit Difference
If you are looking for a nursing home, assisted living residence, senior care housing, or other aging service for yourself or loved one, it’s important to know who manages the organization, what values drive their work and how they provide quality care and services. From offering services tailored to individual needs to creating an environment of trust and caring, not-for-profit aging services organizations strive to provide older Americans with the quality of life they deserve. These organizations have a long tradition of community service and concern.
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