Salemtowne's new health care center

On 8 June 2017, I attended the ribbon cutting and tour of Salemtowne’s new eight-acre, 127,000 square foot, $41.9 million, Babcock Health Care Center. It is a fantastic place that is over three football fields long.

There are sky lights everywhere and large, tall windows throughout. There are high ceilings in the rooms and the main corridors are two stories high. All the flooring, walls, and décor are light pastel colors that have a “beachy” feel. The whole building is so open and bright that you feel as though you are outside on a sunny day. The exterior design of the facility has a Moravian influence that blends well with other buildings on the campus.

At the west entrance of the facility, the lower level contains a 20-bed secure memory care unit named Westerly Place. It will use the “Best Friends” approach where staff members are encouraged to learn the residents’ backgrounds to deepen their relationships in hopes of stimulating activity and enhancing residents’ feelings of security.

One section of the main level contains 40 short-term resident rooms for rehabilitation patients, each with a view of a courtyard, and a very large rehab physical training room that is very bright and airy. Off the training room is a room with all the major appliances one would find in a home, which are used to train rehab patients to use them again. There is also a bathroom with a tub so patients can practice getting in and out of it.

The core of the facility has an open-concept cafeteria, a large beauty shop, and a very large, bright multipurpose room for special events.

The periphery of the building contains three skilled nursing neighborhoods: Salem Square, Mill Place, and Garden Court, each with a historic decorative feel. Each neighborhood is similar to a small, individual self-contained nursing facility. Each neighborhood forms a large square around a large central courtyard. The entrance side of the square has a large living room and lounge area and a large open dining room with a fully equipped chef’s kitchen where meals may be prepared to fit each patient’s wants and needs, and a spa. Each neighborhood has its own staff that caters to the needs of the small group of patients.

The other three sides of a neighborhood square contain 20 large, private rooms, each with a large closet, a fully adjustable bed, a lockable night stand, a chest of drawers, and a lounge chair. There are sliding barn style doors into a bathroom that has a shower that is level with the floor, a sink in a built-in dresser that has many drawers, and a vertical storage unit with many drawers. Instead of medication carts being wheeled around the neighborhood, each room has a nurse’s station with a lock-box that contains the patient’s medications in pre-prepared blister packs.

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center provides medical care at Salemtowne and has worked with the community in developing wellness programs for residents and in developing the new health care facility.  The cost for a skilled nursing bed at the new facility is $305 a day. Residents of Salemtowne independent living receive a 20% discount on any higher levels of care they require.

Gallery of images of the new facility.