Inspiration from Cheese Puffs

40th Anniversary of the Providence Care Center in Sandusky

March 8, 2019

By Sister Nancy Linenkugel

The year was 1989, or a mere 40 years ago this year.   At that time I was the CEO of Providence Hospital in Sandusky and the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania had an incredible ministry opportunity before us.

It was definitely the work of the Holy Spirit on a November 1989 afternoon when I got a call from the operator of a downtown Sandusky nursing home.  For months he had a number of challenges with the State of Ohio and MRDD (mentally retarded/developmentally disabled) because of various facility and care violations, so it wasn’t surprising when he expressed interest in selling.  I didn’t even have to think about it; my response was an instantaneous “I’ll come and see you right now.”  So I grabbed the hospital’s chief financial officer to go with me and we made the seven-minute drive to his facility.

This was my first time visiting the facility other than being there for a prior meeting with a resident, so now I paid close attention to every detail about the place.  Because the facility was an historic hotel that was somewhat rehabbed for nursing home purposes, vestiges of the original place abounded.  In fact, the main lobby looked much like a 1940’s hotel lobby would with its dark paneling, overstuffed leather chairs, and the registration desk flanked by an empty wall board of 150 or so room key slots.

Part of the lobby had been changed into an activities room, so this is the first thing visitors saw.  That day a number of residents were gathered at round tables in their wheelchairs playing bingo.  Yes, very nursing home-esque.  However, the bingo prizes were dishes of cheese puffs.  Can you eat cheese puffs neatly?  I can’t.  After a few bites there’s an orange residue on your fingers.  Multiply that by about 35 residents who were enjoying their cheese puffs WHILE trying to manipulate bingo cards and markers.  When we stopped in the room and were introduced, many persons raised orange fingers in greeting and flashed orange teeth smiles.

Mental note:  no cheese puffs as bingo prizes.

The owner continued us on a tour of the entire facility.  He was extremely proud of the safety changes he had recently made.  One in particular was in the corridor on the top residential floor.  He escorted us halfway down the corridor and proudly gestured to a new smoke door which he had recently installed.  The new smoke door was open but was equipped to shut on a signal from the smoke detector.  We nodded in agreement with the owner that this was an important addition—until our eyes tracked up the door and we saw the ceiling; on the wall, right where the door was installed, was the large disc-like fire alarm bell mounted on the wall, much like you’d have in a school.  Instead of relocating the bell, there was an opening in the smoke partition cut around the bell, actually rendering the door useless to contain any smoke.

Mental note:  make sure smoke partitions really contain the smoke.

We asked to see one of the resident rooms and the owner obliged easily.  He selected a vacant room, opened the door, and we went in.  However, in order to enter the room you had to step up on a 4” riser off the corridor level.  “Are all the rooms this way with the step from the corridor?” I asked.  “Yes,” he replied, “because this is an old hotel building.”  “So how do nursing home residents get into the rooms?” I pressed.  His elation over the newly-installed smoke partition faded and he replied, “Well, it takes two staff members to get residents into the rooms.”

Mental note:  make sure residents have easy access all around the facility with no undue staffing burdens.

So after showing us the kitchen, the boiler room, the linen storage area and a few other spots, we were back again in the lobby.  By then the cheese puffs bingo game was finished and the orange residue on the tables and bingo cards was the only indication anyone had been in the room.

The operator then said expectantly, “Well, what do you think?”

As diplomatically as I could and relying on inspiration from the Spirit that Providence needed to do this ministry, I said, “Providence doesn’t want the building but we’re definitely interested in the license for your beds.  Would you work with us?”  While he truly hoped to sell the whole thing, selling the license for the beds gave him the freedom to do whatever he wanted with the building.  Yes, he was interested.

On the drive back to the hospital we drove around the other side of the nursing home building.  This side had a large lit sign advertising the name of the facility, an outline of a nurse, and a magnetic letter changeable message marquee.  The current message was, “Your Home for _otal Care”.  The “T” had fallen off.  Right then I said to my CFO in the car, “Now for sure we’re going to buy those beds.  Providence can do a whole lot better for the community.”

So once back in the office my first call was to John O’Connell, then-President of Franciscan Services Corporation (FSC).  I explained the opportunity and shared that it was natural for Providence to gain more of a presence in long-term care since we already had a skilled nursing facility (SNF) in the hospital.  John was a great question-asker.  He had an uncanny way of anticipating the future state and helping to picture what that future state might be.  Once I felt the overall ministry OK was in place, my next call was to the Providence Board Chairman, and he was equally positive.

So in a mere couple days John was in Sandusky meeting with several hospital trustees and me to strategize about buying those nursing home beds.  Everyone was on board right away.  This opportunity made so much sense.  Providence’s in-house skilled nursing facility meant that we already knew something about long-term care.  We were committed to creating a newest-and-best option in long-term care for the local community.  And we wanted to do this timely before the owner sold the facility to someone else.  New licenses for nursing home beds were almost impossible to get due to the State of Ohio’s declaration that Ohio was over-bedded.  Our only realistic goal was to purchase existing bed licenses.

So on Christmas Eve in 1989, just a few weeks after our tour of the old hotel-home, several of us from Providence plus our legal counsel were in a negotiating session with the home’s owner and his legal counsel.  At 8:00 PM, when everyone else in the world was enjoying Christmas Eve, we finalized the deal for Providence to purchase the licenses for the 138 nursing home beds.

Providence Care Center was then born.  We put together a board, including Sister Mary Thill, got busy hiring an administrator, who was Rick Ryan now with CHI Franciscan Living Communities, and got underway with facility plans for a new facility.  The Providence Care Center was built across the street from Providence Hospital and was the anchor facility for our congregation’s Sandusky-area retirement community that eventually included the Commons of Providence, a memory care facility, an apartment complex and single-family homes.  Sister Magdala Davlin was the Care Center’s first director of nursing and Sisters Angelita, Grace, and Alonzo also ministered there to the residents.

Although we Sylvania Franciscans no longer have a hospital presence in Sandusky as of 2001, our 40-year ministry in long-term care remains alive providing quality long-term care through our relationship with Catholic Health Initiatives (CHI).  Indeed, it was the Holy Spirit who highlighted the cheese puffs and inspired Sylvania Franciscans to set the gold standard for long-term care services in the region, which are still going strong today, 40 years later.