Meeting the community's needs

Nursing Homes, Sept, 2006 by Patricia DeAgostino

In a small corner of northwestern Michigan, Grand Traverse Pavilions has emerged as a leader for multigenerational healthcare and residential services. Located in Traverse City on 26 acres of historic, national parkland, The Pavilions is home to more than 300 older adults, 46 enrollees in licensed child care, and hundreds of guests in daily respite and rehab programs.

Owned by Grand Traverse County, The Pavilions is one of 36 county-owned long-term care operations in Michigan. The Pavilions is operated by the Grand Traverse County Department of Human Services Board, which oversees a campus that was recognized last year as the national recipient of the Generations United Intergenerational Shared Site Award. Endowed with a rich history dating back to the early 1900s, The Pavilions was originally a county-owned poor farm and today shares the site on the grounds of a former state psychiatric hospital that has been converted into upscale art galleries, an Italian trattoria, a coffee shop, and condominiums.

The Pavilions' campus took shape in the early 1990s with a master plan developed by a representative body of city, county, township, and administrative personnel. The group was charged with replacing an antiquated, four-story medical care facility with new construction and moving 181 residents into what would become their new home.

According to Richard E. Marion, Jr., CEO and administrator for nearly 17 years at The Pavilions, the planning/building committee's intent was to ensure that the needs of the community's most vulnerable populations--its children and seniors--were met. "We knew we had a beautiful piece of property," he explains. "The challenge was to incorporate historically accurate architectural elements into a new 140,000-square-foot-building outfitted with state-of-the-art modern amenities."

In 1999, then-Governor John Engler presented The Pavilions with the prestigious Governor's Quality Care Award. Since then, The Pavilions has been feted locally, statewide, and nationally for its long-standing nurturing of innovative and creative programs and services that respond to the varying degrees of independence of its multi-aged and economically diverse constituency.

Today, The Pavilions (once solely a long-term care operation) is parent organization to five entities: Grand Traverse Medical Care; Intergenerational Community Center; Grand Traverse Pavilions Foundation; The Cottages: Adult Residential Community; and the Aquatic/Wellness Center. Among its programs and services are adult day and overnight respite, child care, independent and assisted living, dementia services, outpatient therapy, health and fitness classes, and rehabilitation. As one of the largest employers in the region, Grand Traverse Pavilions takes pride in its commitment to both the Quality First Covenant and Eden Alternative initiatives. Staff are also committed to The Pavilions' ideals: continuous quality improvement, public disclosure and accountability, workforce excellence, consumer and family rights advocacy, community involvement, ethical practices, and financial integrity.

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One of Michigan's fastest-growing cities, Traverse City is a resort area and destination retirement community. It is home to three times the number of aging baby boomers and 65-plus adults as the rest of the state. As such, The Pavilions strives to advance public trust and confidence in aging services through public service, collaboration, media, advocacy, and other efforts to educate consumers and help them make informed choices. This is accomplished through relationships with the media and collaboration with other providers, as well as community business and education partners.

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During the past decade, The Pavilions has created and been the focus of several hundred news stories and features in regional, state, and national media. Staff worked with the local newspaper, the Traverse City Record-Eagle, educating its editorial and sales personnel on the senior market and aging issues. The paper then redid its senior publication for adults 50 and older, with a new look, new content, and a new name, Outlook.

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The organization has partnered on many community initiatives, including sponsoring 18 senior events for the National Cherry Festival, an eight-day celebration of cherries held each July that draws half a million attendees. The Pavilions has also sponsored the Senior Resource Guide & Compass aging services directory, a guide to everything from adult services to wellness centers in Northern Michigan.

As The Pavilions looks to the future, Marion suggests there are many exciting opportunities for growth of programs and services, including expanding wellness programs for children, expectant mothers, and working adults. Still, he and his administrative team prepare for the numerous challenges of escalating healthcare costs and wrenching cutbacks in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements.

This year, Marion anticipates that The Pavilions will provide approximately $3 million in uncompensated benevolent care to members of the community. That means critical reliance on the growth of assets of the Grand Traverse Pavilions Foundation, the organization's fund-raising arm, established in 1997. "Without a doubt, there's a great deal of work ahead of us," Marion says. "Any success we achieve is defined by our ability to anticipate and meet community needs. We continue to raise the bar. We're proud of that."