Source: Hammonton Gazette.com
There are many exciting things being implemented at the Hammonton Center medical and rehabilitation facility — new and unique ideas to grow its outreach efforts, according to Center Administrator Hershy Alter.
Alter emphasized the hard improvements that have been made at the facility since new ownership began three years ago. Besides new administrators controlling the day-to-day operations, the overall feel of the facility has continued to get better and better. Nearly half of their patients are from Hammonton and the immediate surrounding areas, something Alter says helps mightily when marketing to such a tight-knit town:
“People here are family-oriented. When people have a grandpa who needs somewhere to live, it’s not like the family is out in Texas and don’t care where they go. They’re living local. Why drive 20 miles when you have a higher-end nursing and rehab facility right here in your backyard?”
Hammonton Center Director of Nursing Festus Boanoh has a long history of taking what Alter called “lower-tier” facilities and transforming them into well-known, smoothly-run medical operations. His presence has been an important part of the ongoing transformation at the center. “We try to look at each resident from a resident’s approach. If you want to eat oatmeal for breakfast, we are able to cater to that. We can provide special needs,” Boanoh said.
Community Liason Lindsey Petrosh (a graduate of St. Joseph High School and Rowan University and a former Miss New Jersey), has been working at the Hammonton Center for a little more than a month, but has brought forth a number of innovative ideas, almost all of which deal with the center’s community life and events.
“With the holidays approaching, we’re doing a coat drive and a holiday event where the kids can come and have their picture taken with Santa. We’re also very involved with the Canoe Club here in town; we host their bingo night once a month at their facility. They have a knitting and crocheting club, and they’re coming in and presenting our residents here with blankets. We’re really trying to reach out to the community as much as possible,” Petrosh says.
There are currently plans to build a complete Activities of Daily Living (ADL) facility inside the center. The facility and its gymnasium will allow medical staff to better monitor patients as they perform day-to-day tasks to ensure they can resume activities on their own.
Along with the building of an Activities of Daily Living facility, the interior of the Hammonton Center is set to receive a complete cosmetic facelift in the first quarter of 2016.
“The last thing that we want is for a patient to come into this facility and have to worry about anything else other than getting strong and getting out of here,” Alter says. “You focus on your therapy– everything else, you leave to us.”