Bethany Lutheran Home

It has been a while since my last blog post, which is mainly due to the fact we have been really busy!  Our construction project in Brandon, where we are adding a new nursing home addition to the Bethany Meadows campus, is going well.  We are excited about this project and we think people will be impressed with the facility.  As this year unfolds we will be talking to residents, families and staff about whether they are interested in living and working at Bethany Meadows.  We also want people to know, just because we are expanding at Bethany Meadows does not mean we are going to close Bethany Home in Sioux Falls.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.  After our Brandon expansion is complete we plan on coming back to Bethany Home in Sioux Falls and doing a major remodeling project there.  We plan on converting to all private rooms and adding Medicaid eligible assisted living apartments.  This will give us a full continuum of care at both of our locations.  This, along with some of our other changes, such as switching to electronic medical records, shows our commitment to being one of the best senior care organizations in our region.  Change is some times hard, but often times necessary.  Managing that change is where the rubber meets the road.

Every now and then we get a little note that makes our day even brighter.  Recently we received a note from the husband of a former Bethany Lutheran Home resident saying that he had read our newsletter and was glad we were moving ahead with the new Bethany Home addition to our Bethany Meadows campus.  He said he wanted to help support that effort and enclosed a donation.  That was nice, however what was really nice was how his note went on to say that his wife was well taken care of at Bethany and how he has told many other people the same thing.  We do a lot of marketing to let people know about Bethany, but that is the best kind of marketing.  It all comes back to the great people who live and work at Bethany.  Hopefully we can get even more little notes like that in the future!

Trevor Guthmiller
Director of Development

In just four days we will be breaking ground for the new nursing home addition on our Bethany Meadows campus in Brandon.  We are all so excited to have this project come together.  So many people have worked hard to get us to this point.  For me, it will mean a lot that we are going to be able to offer seniors the ability to live on a campus that offers independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing care.  I have been looking forward to celebrating this groundbreaking since our planning committee first started meeting in the spring of 2008. 

We've come a long way, and this groundbreaking will mark the end of one phase and the beginning of another for this project.  We've still got a ways to go, and while we can't predict the future, we can prepare for it, and adding a new nursing home addition to our Bethany Meadows campus will be good for our residents and their families.

Everyone at Bethany Lutheran Home is dedicated to making Bethany a great place for our residents to live.  Recently, we started what we call our "Living the Dream" program, whereby our staff finds ways to give our residents something extra special in order to make their day.  Through some dedicated funds granted by the Bethany Lutheran Foundation, we have been able to do unique things for some of our residents.  For example, one Living the Dream activity was a special anniversary dinner for a couple that lives at Bethany Lutheran Home.  While their health situation didn't allow them to go out for a nice meal, we wanted to help them celebrate their love, so we had Minerva's cater in a wonderful and special anniversary meal for them, which they enjoyed in our beautiful hospitality room. It was a special night, and a few tears of happiness were shed.

Another example of the Living the Dream program helping residents was when we worked with Augustana College and the Minnesota Twins to get six Bethany residents into the sold-out Twins Caravan event.  We supplied them with Twins gear and stuff to be autographed, lined up transportation and helpers and even had a "ballpark" party for them before they left to take in the fun.  They all had a great time.

This just another example of what makes Bethany special.  I am thankful that we have a great staff that tries to make every day great for our residents.  If you would like to help support these efforts, you can make a donation to Bethany on our "Donate" page.  Bethany is a wonderful place and we are happy that we can help some of our residents Live the Dream!

Trevor Guthmiller

Director of Development

As chaplain of Bethany Lutheran Home, I have the pleasure of visiting with residents and resident families.  Those visits are special and I have one recent visit with a Bethany resident family that especially warmed my heart.

Delight is now a Bethany resident.  While she was in the hospital, her doctor indicated to Delight's son and daughter that she needed a nursing home.  The children wanted help in locating a proper nursing home for their mother.  They asked the doctor about nursing homes and the doctor said that Bethany Home was a home that would give their mother great care.  In fact, the son and daughter told me that the doctor and other medical staff said that you would not get better care any where than at Bethany Lutheran Home.

The son then said, "and what the doctor said is true - our mother has had wonderful care here at Bethany Home."

Bethany Home is truly a "Christian Community of Care!"

Pastor Dennis Tranberg

Bethany Home Chaplain

Every now and then I see a story I think is worth sharing.  Bethany is an organization that respects and caters to people of all faiths, as well as people who do not believe in a greater power or a hereafter.  Our mission is to give everyone a great place to live and receive care regardless of their religious beliefs. 

That being said, our principles are based on our faith and we strive to care for the body and the spirit, and that is why this article was of interest to me.  This article delves into deathbed visions and the transition between life and death.  You can read it and make any judgements yourself, but it made me think.

Click here to see the CNN story.

Trevor Guthmiller, Director of Development

It is always nice to be recognized by others in the community, and recently Bethany was recognized as the 2010 winner of the "Positively Aging" Award from the Active Generations organization in Sioux Falls.  Active Generations does a wonderful job for seniors in our community, and we are so proud to be able to work with them on a variety of programs, including the Bethany's Best Dessert program where our staff comes in and serves a signature dessert once every month to their members. 

It is humbling as well to be recognized, since it is really our staff that reaches out to Active Generations and other organizations in our community where we can make a difference.  Bethany staff is involved with numerous organizations in our community, including United Way, Active Generations, the Banquet and area Chambers of Commerce.  While it is Bethany that was recognized for this award, it is really our staff that deserves the pat on the back.  They are doing good things, and we are proud of their efforts. 

Trevor Guthmiller, Director of Development

What a great way to start the morning.  This morning Bethany staff from both Bethany Lutheran Home and Bethany Meadows, as well as some Bethany Meadows residents, came together to serve breakfast at the Banquet in downtown Sioux Falls.  We recognize that we are blessed, and this is one small way we can reach out and help others in the community.  The phrase "there but by the Grace of God go I" is something I often think about and I know that we make a difference when we can do things like we did this morning in support of the Banquet's ministry.  Hats off to our dietary deparment heads for preparing the breakfast and to everyone who got up early to help us serve it. 

Bethany serves breakfast at the Banquet twice a year, but it is that spirit of caring and looking out for others that we strive for all year long.  In another example of how Bethany supports its community, tomorrow we are having a pizza party at Bethany Meadows to raise money for the United Way backpack program so kids can have school supplies and food over the weekend.  Like most of these efforts at Bethany, this was organized by the staff because they feel it is important.  It is a true blessing for me to be a part of an organization made up of people who care about others.

We survey Bethany Lutheran Home employees every year (as well as our residents and their families) to make sure we give them an opportunity to provide us feedback.  In the employee survey from July 2010, we were happy to see that 98% of Bethany employees would recommend Bethany Lutheran Home as a place to live.  While we would have liked to have seen that been 100%, we think 98% is really good.  It speaks very highly of our employees, the work they do and the pride they take in our organization.  If our employees, the people who work here and provide the care on a daily basis, feel that way about Bethany, that says a lot about what we are doing right.

Our staff, on the survey, also gave us some good ideas about how to improve employee training.  So, hopefully, if we keep listening to our staff, and keep focused on our mission, we will be able to reach that 100% level.

Trevor Guthmiller, Director of Development

As anyone who has worked in the long-term care industry knows, losing someone is hard.  It is hard for family and it is hard for staff.  When that happens, we take a lot of comfort knowing that our residents, and their families, liked how they were treated at Bethany Lutheran Home.  The following is from a note we recently received from the family of one of our residents.

"Thank you to everyone for all your kind messages and thoughtfulness.  She talked many times about all the activities she was involved with at Bethany and how much she enjoyed everyone.  I will definitely miss her too, but she is with the love of her life now..."

Every day is precious, and a gift from God, and we are honored to get to care for some of the most special people and to work with some wonderful families.  We take the word "home" in Bethany Lutheran Home very seriously.  We try to make our place a home that we all can be proud of and a home that our residents will love. 

Trevor Guthmiller, Director of Development