Nursing home set to open

It’s taken nearly two years, a lot of hard work and overcoming plenty of frustration and obstacles, but the nursing home in Custer is open for business.
The Custer Care and Rehab Center is accepting its first patients this week, culminating the hard work of Custer Cares—the organization put together by City of Custer Mayor Bob Brown to bring the nursing home back to life—and Caring Professionals, the company that is contracted by Custer Cares to manage the facility.
Sam Van Voorst, regional administrator with Caring Professionals, will be in charge of the facility until another administrator is hired. Van Voorst has worked with Caring Professionals since he was in high school in Dell Rapids when he started doing maintenance and groundskeeping at the nursing home there.
“It’s so exciting. So, so exciting,” Van Voorst said of the opening of the nursing home. “To be here now, have staff in the building, getting the building ready for residents, admitting residents. It’s been a heck of a journey.”
Hundreds of man hours went into acquiring the facility and lining up a suitable company to run it, and the work to do that began immediately after Monument Health announced the closing around two years ago. Brown decided he wasn’t just going to accept the closing and went to work on how to either prevent Monument Health from closing it or how to bring another nursing home into the fold. Privately, residents also began to meet in the hopes of saving the facility. From that, Custer Cares emerged, and it eventually began to work with Caring Professionals to bring about the reopening. Caring Professionals runs 20 other such facilities across the state.
Van Voorst said Caring Professionals does not operate facilities in large towns, and its specialty is running facilities in smaller towns like Custer.
“We run lean operations. We know how to make it work for these smaller towns like this,” he said. “You have an aging population here that’s higher than the majority of the state. You can just tell the need is there in this community. To have a town that is willing to put in the effort to get this going is amazing, because most towns would not put in this effort.”
Van Voorst said the facility was not what he expected—in a good way—saying when something closes you wonder if it is going to be run down and in poor condition.
“It’s actually a very nice building that has a lot of upgrades that a lot of buildings that operate in this state wouldn’t have,” he said.  “That was another big appeal when we walked in here. This is a building that is not going to take tons of capital improvement costs to open.”
Van Voorst said Caring Professionals is passionate about making a positive difference in residents’ lives, and he said he and company CEO Chad Stroschein appreciate everything the elderly have given throughout their lives.
“We want to be able to give back and care for people,” he said. “Working in long term care in a nursing home is a very purpose-driven career. You feel you’re fulfilling a purpose and taking care of people and appreciated on a day to day basis.”
Van Voorst said the most important thing for the facilities he manages is the culture.
“A good culture leads to having happier, healthier residents, and that’s what’s most important to me,” he said. “The residents need to be happy and healthy and everything else is easier.”
Administrators for Caring Professionals are required to be CNA certified so they can work the floor and have an appreciation of what the staff does and have a true understanding of what the job entails.
“If they’re not willing to get their hands dirty, are they meant to be a part of this organization? I don’t feel so,” Van Voorst said. “CNA is a tough, underappreciated job, but it’s a very important job.”
Staffing the facility has gone well, Van Voorst said, adding finding nurses for the facility can be a challenge, like it is everywhere they are needed. Van Voorst said there are people working at the facility who were working there previously, as well as people who are newer to the community.
“It was amazing to see how many people wanted to be a part of this and be a part of the reopening of this,” he said. “I interview people all the time for facilities across the state. It was a different feel here. They truly came in wanting to be a part of this and a part of the reopening because it was important to them.”
At the outset around 16 employees will staff the facilities, as one wing with 13 rooms will open at first. That wing is private pay, although eventually the facility will be certified for Medicaid and Medicare. As the need arises and staffing allows, more wings of the facility will be opened.
Van Voorst had high praise for Custer Cares and the manner in which it went about reopening the facility, saying the work the group put in has been “incredible.”
“I’m not kidding when I say I don’t know how many other communities in the entire state would be able to put together a team that would get this done and have the relentless pursuit to do it,” he said. “Every time we thought we turned a corner, another curve ball was thrown our way. They’ve just taken it.”
Van Voorst said Caring Professionals is also looking forward to be a partner in health care with Monument Health, which for the time being will still operate its laundry and meal service out of the building as part of its deal with the city to allow the city to take over the building.
“We want to have people get the care they need all the way through,” he said. “I’m glad to be at the point we are. I think it will work well.”
For months, Van Voorst said, it was just him in the building. To see staff working and be welcoming residents is the reward for all the hard work for all involved.
“I’m excited for the community,” he said.