Since shortly after the Civil War, The Wartburg has been a quiet presence occupying a secluded place in Mount Vernon. Now it”™s about to raise the volume to promote its new and expanded services and stretch its service reach into Westchester County and the Bronx.
Founded as a children”™s orphanage and sponsored by the Lutheran Church as a social ministry, The Wartburg Adult Care Community for more than a century has built a reputation as a nursing home operator that provides additional residential and day services largely for elderly residents with low or moderate incomes. It operates on a $54 million budget. As Mount Vernon”™s largest employer, it provides jobs for about 800 area residents on a former working farm tucked away off the Hutchinson River Parkway and Lincoln Avenue.
“We”™ve been very quiet,” said David Gentner, president and CEO of the newly rebranded Wartburg. Outside his office, a construction crew worked noisily on the Wartburg”™s new rehabilitation center that will open in August. “Things have been safe and comfortable and stable,” he said.
But for leaders at Wartburg ”“ the “The” recently was dropped from its name so as not to suggest one fixed location for its services ”“ and for other health care providers, things are no longer so comfortable as the U.S. implements reform measures included in the Affordable Care Act and New York carries out its cost-cutting redesign of the state”™s Medicaid program. For senior health care, the focus is shifting from long-term institutional care in nursing homes such as the 240-bed facility on the 34-acre Wartburg campus to providing community-based health services and home care that keeps patients in their homes.
“Historically we”™ve been a fee-for-service destination” that serves a significant number of Medicaid patients, Gentner said. “But the incentives have changed and our focus has changed. It”™s gotten much more competitive and everything”™s changing. Wartburg needs to change.”
As part of that change, Wartburg is preparing to launch its own health care insurance product. The nonprofit has applied to the state Health Department for approval of its managed long-term care plan for Medicaid patients. Enrollment in the plan will be open to Bronx residents as well as residents of Westchester County.
“It”™s a big deal for Wartburg,” Gentner said of the insurance venture, which will be managed in-house in Mount Vernon. “We”™re blessed because we have the resources and capital to do it.”
That effort to expand its service region also marks a significant change at Wartburg. Seventy percent of its residents previously lived within a five-mile radius of the campus; and the remaining 30 percent lived within a 10-mile radius, Gentner said. “Obviously that”™s one of the things that we”™d like to change as we look to community-based models.”
But the old model of the Wartburg as a residential center for the elderly will not be entirely discarded for the new. The nursing home, Wartburg”™s largest program and a facility with an occupancy rate historically in the 90 percent range, will maintain 210 beds, Gentner said.
For seniors not needing skilled nursing care, the Wartburg”™s assisted living facility has 105 units and includes a memory care wing for patients with dementia or Alzheimer”™s disease. The Wartburg also has 34 rustic stone cottages for seniors able to live independently.
This month, the Wartburg community will dedicate its recently opened Friedrichs Residence, a 61-apartment affordable housing building on the Mount Vernon campus.
The Friedrichs project and the rehabilitation center for short-term patients now under construction represent a $53 million investment, Gentner said.
The projects were launched with an approximately $27.6 million HEAL NY grant awarded to Wartburg by the state in 2010. The grant “was a real game-changer for us,” Gentner said. “Because that fixed all of our issues on campus and also dramatically changed our balance sheet.”
Having fixed the quiet 147-year-old campus, Wartburg officials aim to make the organization a long-term fixture in Bronx and Westchester neighborhoods.
“We”™re going to spend a lot of time telling the community who we are and what we do and what makes us special,” Gentner said. “We”™re going to do everything we can to be top of the mind to elders and seniors in the region.”
“Yes, the destination is still here, but we are looking to return people to their homes in the community or serve them in their community.”
