Nursing home renovation to begin soon
Work on a $6 million renovation at Sunnyview Home in Butler Township is expected to begin in June.
The project at the county-run nursing home will create a 20-private bed rehabilitation unit aimed at transient residents, a remodeled 36-bed Alzheimer's unit with a new elevator, private rooms for hospice residents, semi-private bariatric rooms and a new sprinkler system. It will reduce the number of beds from 240 to 220.
The county landed a state grant to cover the cost of the work, county Commissioner James L. Kennedy said. The money was contingent upon the number of beds at the home being reduced to help Sunnyview cut costs.
"There was no cost to taxpayers," Kennedy said.
He said the home will now be less expensive to staff, with fewer beds, and the renovations should help the home, which currently has 216 patients, bring in more patients. It is essential Sunnyview stays close to full capacity because its revenue is based on the number of patients it brings in.
The home has been inching its way out of the red in recent years. It finished with a loss of $266,000 last year, $700,000 in 2004 and $1.6 million in 2003, Sunnyview Administrator Susan Murray said.
"Healthcare and the cost of nursing has gone up. We've shown we've been able to hold our costs," said Murray, who hoped the renovations would help Sunnyview compete with private nursing homes.
In recent years, several counties, including Mercer and Venango, have decided to sell their nursing homes because of rising expenses and trouble filling beds.
Sunnyview was last renovated in 1982.
Murray said the new emphasis is on privacy. She said the home would now have mostly semi-private rooms, which have 2 bedrooms separated by a partition, as well as some private rooms. There would also be some 3 bedrooms, she said.
"The minimum most people want is semi-private," said Murray.
The total price for the four prime contracts was $4.8 million, which will leave breathing room to pay for cost overruns and architect fees. The work is expected to be finished in a year, Murray said.
