WORK UNDER WAY ON CARE FACILITY; SKILLED NURSING CENTER TO TAKE NOVEL APPROACH.Byline: Karen Maeshiro Daily News Staff Writer Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Hospital officials broke ground Thursday on an $11 million, 99-bed convalescent con·va·les·cent adj. Relating to convalescence. n. A person who is recovering from an illness, an injury, or a surgical operation. convalescent 1. pertaining to or characterized by convalescence. 2. facility, which they say will have economic as well as medical benefits. The 49,000-square-foot skilled nursing facility skilled nursing facility n. Abbr. SNF An establishment that houses chronically ill, usually elderly patients, and provides long-term nursing care, rehabilitation, and other services. , to be built south of the hospital itself, will provide care to elderly patients who need medical attention but not traditional hospital and physician care. ``Each day, 6,000 people turn 65. In the near future, 50 percent of the population will be over 65,'' said board President Shirley Sayles. ``As America grays, health care will change. Today's groundbreaking marks the hospital's first step in meeting this change.'' The facility, scheduled to be completed by July, will feature a secured ward for Alzheimer's patients, as well as rehabilitation rehabilitation: see physical therapy. services, an aviary aviary Structure for keeping captive birds, usually spacious enough for the aviculturist to enter. Aviaries range from small enclosures to large flight cages 100 ft (30 m) or more long and up to 50 ft (15 m) high. Enclosures for birds that fly only little or weakly (e.g. stocked with Adj. 1. stocked with - furnished with more than enough; "rivers well stocked with fish"; "a well-stocked store" stocked furnished, equipped - provided with whatever is necessary for a purpose (as furniture or equipment or authority); "a furnished apartment"; birds to entertain patients, and a therapy pool. Hospital administrator Bob Harenski said much of the $11 million construction cost will remain in the Antelope Valley, with the use of local subcontractors. The facility also will create 200 jobs, adding $8 million to $12 million in payroll to the local economy. The nursing facility is intended as the first phase of a senior-citizen complex. Later phases could include an assisted-living facility, a center for independent living and a day-care center day-care center: see day nursery. for elderly residents. The facility, which represents the hospital's first expansion in nine years, will be built around a two-story atrium. The vacant expansion site, immediately south of the hospital at Avenue J and 10th Street West, was purchased in the 1970s. A $2.1 million support-services complex will be built along with the nursing facility. The complex will house the hospital's business office, other administrative offices, home health agency and a 150-seat auditorium for board meetings and community education programs. The hospital now leases rooms off-site for its business office and home health agency. The hospital's last expansion came with completion of its five-story medical tower in 1988. Because of low patient numbers, the fifth-floor tower remained unused for almost two years in the early 1990s, but the number of patients has risen again to an average daily census daily census See Census. of over 200. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (Color) A.V. Hospital's skilled nursing facility will provide care for certain elderly patients. |
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