Q: How does the Lake City Nursing Home rate today in comparison to other nursing homes in Minnesota?

A: The Lake City Nursing Home excels in medical care.  In fact, the Lake City Nursing Home is rated among the top ten in the state for medical care.  The state of Minnesota, however, also looks at quality of life ratings.  The goal of Life Matters Here is to enhance quality of life for nursing home residents; combining excellent medical care with a wonderful environment to call home.

Q: Why doesn’t the remodel include work being done to the resident’s rooms?

A: The remodel is designed to improve the social and community aspects of the nursing home. The limitations of the resident rooms themselves (i.e. size, limited number of private rooms, layout, bathroom access, etc.) would not be dramatically changed through a cosmetic face-lift.

Furthermore, the greatest benefit for residents is having a vibrant, active community in which they can become engaged.  This includes having a variety of destinations to explore and a variety of spaces to embrace the various aspects of life. LCMC does not want residents to be confined to one room that acts as a bedroom, living room and entertainment parlor but rather use the entire facility as their home.  

In addition, the nursing home is making operational changes to provide residents with the opportunity to furnish their rooms with their own belongings, those which have meaning and are familiar.

Q: Why are donations necessary to complete this project?

A: The unfortunate nature of nursing home reimbursements in the state of Minnesota makes it extremely difficult just to maintain existing buildings and equipment. Both Medicaid and private pay rates are equal and set by the state of Minnesota. These rates fall far short of covering the cost of operations and have only grown by an average of 1.2% over the last three years, far short of keeping up with inflation.

Q: Have you researched the cost of building a new nursing home versus renovation?

A: There are a couple of factors as to why building a new nursing home is more cost prohibitive than renovating the current structure. The first of these is cost; building a new nursing home would be three to four times the cost of the remodel.  Also, LCMC does not have the property to build a new nursing home onsite without greatly impacting the future needs of other services. Finally, there would be greater disruption to services if LCMC were to add on or modify the existing building.

Q: Will the remodel change the number of beds or effect LCMC’s ability to provide the same level of services during construction?

A: No.  The remodel project will not alter the number of beds, nor will it alter the number of residents or the quality of services residents receive throughout the construction process.   The project has been divided into five phases in consideration of the residents and modifications to service will be very limited during construction. 

Q: Do LCMC employees support this project?

A: LCMC employees are supporting the project in a variety of ways.  Many employees have enrolled in payroll deduction which allows them to donate a set amount of money to the project with every paycheck.  Employees are also supporting the project through a number of employee-led fundraising activities like plant and pumpkin sales.