December 13, 2022
What a difference a year makes. Our residents, families, and staff marked the return to normalcy after the unprecedented isolation of the pandemic. That’s worth celebrating on so many levels.
Take a look at some of the year’s highlights. We are excited to usher in 2023.
Welcome Back Families!
Our families and residents resumed family visits and activities after a long hiatus due to the pandemic’s restrictions. Getting together and being able to hug, laugh and converse was momentous for us all. We remain in awe of our residents, who showed such courage and resiliency throughout COVID-19.
Coffee Shop Reopened
From 1:00-4:00 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, some of our beloved volunteers came back to the Leavitt Family Jewish Home to reopen our coffee shop, providing a warm and welcoming gathering place for residents and their families and friends to visit, enjoying s ice-cream and fresh brewed coffee. We are so grateful to our volunteers: Joe Dombrovsky, Elliot Levin, Patti Bassel, Linda Radding and Linda Goldrick for staffing our coffee shop!
JGS Lifecare Celebrates Best Place to Work Designation
The organization received the prestigious Great Place to Work® designation. This certification process involved surveying employees on more than 60 elements and was bestowed upon the organization by the Great Place to Work Institute and its senior care partner Activated Insights, a global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Employees were surveyed about such topics as community impact, belief that their work makes a difference, and the feeling their work environment is safe. Our employees truly make our organization special.
Specialized Sub-Acute Rehab Services Expansion at JGS
JGS welcomed Northeast Rehab Associates, Inc to our campus, allowing us to expand our services to include specialized orthopedic, cardiac, pulmonary and respiratory sub-acute rehab care at Sosin Center for Rehabilitation. The experienced staff of Northeast Rehab have been serving Western MA for over 25 years, under the leadership of Registered Physical Therapist Cherie Stack. Stack’s longtime staff came with her, attracted to the Sosin Center’s Green House model of care, with its home-like environment and philosophy of engaging patients in their own treatment plan, helping optimize recovery and re-establish patient independence.
Spectrum Home Health & Hospice Care Named 2022 Hospice Honors Elite Recipient
Hospice Honors is a prestigious annual national program from HEALTHCAREfirst that recognized hospices that continuously provide the highest level of quality care as measured by the caregiver’s point of view. HEALTHCAREfirst is a leading provider of billing and coding services, CAHPS surveys, and advanced analytics. It acknowledges the highest performing agencies by analyzing the performance of the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) hospice survey satisfaction measures. HEALTHCAREfirst holds a special recognition called Hospice Honors Elite, to honor hospices scoring above the HEALTHCAREfirst National Performance Score on all 24 of the evaluated questions. Spectrum Hospice accomplished this, demonstrating the hard work, dedication and outstanding performance of the entire staff at Spectrum.
Leavitt Family Jewish Home Awarded CMS Five-Star Quality Rating
The Home was awarded the prestigious Five-Star Quality Rating from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services! The rating is based upon information from the last three years of onsite inspections; staffing levels; and quality measures – which includes data on how well nursing homes are caring for their residents’ physical and clinical needs. The five-star rating system has become a critical tool for the public to measure the quality and performance of a skilled nursing facility. Nursing homes with five stars are considered well above average quality. We have worked very hard, day in and day out, to achieve and maintain this five-star rating. We are so proud of our staff!
Memory Care Expansion at JGS
JGS Lifecare was the recipient of a $50,000 grant from The Sephardic Foundation on Aging to enhance the lives of our residents struggling with memory impairments or some form of dementia. The grant helped purchase large computer monitors featuring touch screen programming that encourage resident engagement in failure-free activities. It purchased wall mounted activity boards that attract residents to familiar activities, like driving a car or petting a cat, offering enjoyable opportunities to reminisce. The grant also funded the purchase of new materials and supplies for our sensory rooms, and made possible capital upgrades to our courtyards, affording residents the opportunity to enjoy more outdoor activities and interactions with nature. We are so grateful to The Sephardic Foundation on Aging for making this possible.
Pet Therapy
Creatures large and small visited our residents this past year, bringing back the joy of being with animals. Bright Spot Therapy Dogs, like the beautiful collie Countess Basie, brought so much joy to our residents at the Home and they are looking forward to her bi-weekly visits. Magnificent birds from the Ma Birds of Prey Rehab Facility in Conway fascinated our residents. And, last but not least, horses paid a visit to our residents at Ruth’s House. Imagine that!
Legacy Lifecare Affiliations Continue to Expand
The values and ethics that make JGS Lifecare so unique translate well to other organizations. Under the Legacy Lifecare umbrella we are working with Chelsea Jewish Lifecare in Chelsea and Peabody, Sister of Charity in Wellesley, Deutsches Altenheim in West Roxbury, and the Armenian Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Jamaica Plain. There is strength in numbers and by working together we can help preserve charitable, high quality senior care.
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