This is a pop quiz. What industry in the United States is growing although 98 per cent of its customers say they would rather be dead than do business with that industry? That’s right, nursing homes.

Wesley Village Senior Retirement Community in Wilmore is attempting to change that opinion. In April 2011 Wesley Village opened the first Small Home for Memory Care in Kentucky. A geriatrician, Dr. Bill Thomas, M.D., is credited with developing the concept about 20 years ago. More than 200 small homes now operate in 22 states.

The physical surroundings and the approach to care differ fundamentally from the traditional nursing home. The “small home” just opened at Wesley Village contains 9,000 square feet. It looks like a handsome one-story house. Alan Beuscher, Vice-President for Community Relations/New Initiatives, makes the point that occupants are “residents” who are never referred to as “patients.” With two nursing assistants on duty 24/7, the staffing ratio is one to five. A licensed nurse, either an LPN or an RN, is also available around the clock.

Each of the ten residents has a private bedroom and bath. The bedrooms are built around a huge “family room” where residents eat together or socialize between meals. A fireplace with artificial logs is in one wall. The kitchen is central in the design, open to the family room. Residents can see, hear, and smell meals being prepared, and even assist with meal preparation if they care to. They can step outside into a securely fenced garden.

Beuscher makes it clear that he is not bashing the traditional nursing home industry.

“The small homes plan is not a cross between residential and institutional styles,” Beuscher says. “It is a residential style. But it meets the standards for nursing homes. One big difference in the small home concept of long-term care is that patients are not locked into an institutional schedule. This is their home. Residents in the small home are not told when they have to get up in the morning, when they have to go to bed at night, what they have to eat at each meal, when they have to eat each meal, or who they have to live with. Certainly, it will be up to our staff to see that proper meals are provided and staff will make rounds to see that people are taking their medications. Any medical concern will be addressed promptly. [In the usual nursing home], everything is driven by the institutional schedule, not by what is best for each individual.”

The first small home cost about $2.5 million. With the initial consulting, the building design and much of the basic infrastructure in place, the additional small homes Wesley Village hopes to build will each cost considerably less, according to Beuscher. For more information, Beuscher can be reached at 859-858-3865 ext. 238.