hello i'm an o'brien and this is ask the experts and this evening i have guests from the vermont veterans home right the day after veterans day we're happy to have the c e o of the veterans home a maybe we could just start by talking about kind of what the remount veterans home is and we can kick it off from that for about your home is a state run nursing home in bennington vermont it's the second oldest roadshows making contact with people up north up here with you all and one of the things that i always say is where is your veterans home they almost always indicate that it's white river junction all right river that is your v a hospital and we are the vermont veterans home down in bennington so you know from there it goes into an education that you know that's you know that's what we are so the difference is the hospital does acute care and the veterans home is really long yes long term care for that exactly so what what about eligibility like who can come to the veterans home veterans their spouses and gold star parents i was asked yesterday what a gold star parent is and that is a father a mother who's lost a son or daughter in combat so they're all eligible residence to take precedence obviously but we also have veterans from new york massachusetts and most distant veteran came from new mexico and the veterans have to be honorably discharge so you have to be either a veteran or a gold star parent or a spouse a spouse in the bedroom to come to the veterans home and what about the care is it free or did i sometimes think could ask that question a lot and the answer is yes and no but if you are deemed seventy percent or more what's called service connected disabled by the v a then your care at our facility would be free otherwise it's depending on your insurance we accept medicare medicaid most of your major commercial insurance is and private pay so and what about the services could you just talk about what kinds of services you provide the full spectrum we do everything from short term rehab you know to long term care and anything in between where we do we've done some hospice  some respite care we have a couple gentlemen that come in on a routine basis for respite care in the the short term care i know well i recently visited there and one of the reasons that i invited you to come to be on the program i thought i was so impressed by the place and by the connections with the people and the the kind of climate or atmosphere that was there with this the staff and the quality of the staff so i wonder if you could just sort could kind of walk through like told us a little bit about the staff staff or her staff incredible we have a two over two hundred full time employees many of been there thirty plus years and it's a calling to work with  veterans you know they truly enjoy the job they do and it's very reflective in our quality surveys we receive regular end results from pinnacle it's a private company we pay they interview our veterans and staff and we are best in class and most of the areas that they rate and that's compared to other nursing homes across the country so yeah and our staff when we have people tour the place i always ask at the end i want to ask you a question would you think about it so we'll w the facility and we have everything from housekeeping housekeeping dietary of course our clinical nursing staff and each and every time when somebody tours facility at the end they remark that they can't believe how personal the care is i mean that person may be cleaning the floors and you know the veterans and they'll stop their talking about the scores of the recent game i mean it truly is a whole madness here and we all we what we always say in the staff articulate is that we work in the veterans home you know what makes a veterans home different than another nursing home like if you so people have to be a veteran to be there but is there why would a veteran choose to go to the vermont veterans home versus another nursing home for the have the you know your typical veteran goes in the middle military you know between the ages of seventeen and twenty two and they usually serve between two and four years and that time of their life i mean it's an imprint in their mind so these men and women you know they volunteered for the most part and then they've gone and they've done something that's beyond you know the norm you know they've really stepped across the line and done something special well in life you know you talk to these gentlemen and women later on and they may be ninety five years old when you talk to and they talk about their time in the service and it's amazing so if you walk around the veterans hall you know you could sit down with the veterans and inevitably the conversation is going to be talking about their service time whether we're making up stories you know you got to bolster the stories a little bit or but always and it's a lot of fun so you can tell that they feel comfortable being are being war two coast guard veteran and i don't know how many of those there are you know there are many in boise fun to talk to about you know about her experiences and we recently had the korean war commemorative you know where we handed out medals to all the korean war veterans you heard of it and it's deer yes i'm a trout pond catch and release but what the other things that makes us different than most nursing homes is our outdoor spaces every one of our neighborhoods has a dedicated outdoor area is even where they can sit and talk  both of our memory care units have secure gardens for the walking past all our veterans of memory care issues to get outside and enjoy the environment safely we have our neighborhood birds and squirrels that keep everyone entertained we have a beautiful chapel on said all the courtyards the veterans are always out in a more walking around and that's definitely noticed a noticeable difference from other facilities yeah eighty four acres is a pretty big territorially you can really go out and oh it's beautiful and to one of our boarders we have so the high school athletic fields so the veterans will walk out there and watch a soccer match going on or they'll go down to the trout pond you know where that's a pretty big realized my estimations i've been in correct my whole fishing career my wife just said yeah right if we were to talk about the quality issues i know that there's been some her grahams like that could you talk about the no mistakes are not just a program is a means of hindoo for honoring the spirit within and this is a dedicated room in our memory care unit that allows us to provide care to our veterans or members in just a very relaxing environment aroma therapy is offered it's very quiet environment they go in they will sit in a recliner be wrapped up in warm blankets and receive their care be it their breathing their dressing those type of things the program i started at the veterans home kicked me out on the tour that was the most relaxing spago is that it's all of them and it really is really really lovely some of the other technology things that were of interest like this idea of being connected well connected with the community that connected with your family and one of the one of the concerns i guess is if you live in the county and your family members in bennington in the veterans home then it feels like it's so far away but could you talk about the we're doing is were purchasing a corporate in the skype and face time cards so what it is it's a computer that you can do skype and face time and you can you can roll that right to the veterans room or wherever river the veteran wants to talk could be outside doesn't matter because we're wireless throughout the building so then from there they can talk to their their family they talk to their friends it's it's very neat it's very you know we have we have veterans that are in their ninety's that you see you walking around looking at their i phones  don't it makes you break sometimes i go to say hey can you hold my phone with me but yeah it's very neat so that's one way that we can connect thousands of miles as a matter so you're saying in their ninety's is there are they mostly elders or do you have simple traditional long term care we do short term rehab where if you have a new your hip replacement you can come in for a short period of time we'll get you back on your feet and have you go home one of the nice things we have is also outpatient therapy so if you continue your rehab once you've gone home if you need to come and stay with us we have your long term care but we also what we call the da to assisted living live a more independent private rooms and you know able to come and go at your leisure we provide limited medical care and assistance with your daily needs and medication and then we do hospice care hospice care scuse me end of life care we have a dedicated room on our one of our units called the reagan room but what we found is the staff and the veterans become so close that when someone is nearing the end of life we don't use that room very often because they want to stay with the caregivers that they've known and feel comfortable with so you know what's interesting we've also had other veterans who want to come in just at the end of life because they want to pass among veterans which is i didn't expect that y so what about the medical care you contract with i know into the county there's an outpatient that trend's clinic and there are they in every county and there are several throughout the state we have one literally right down the community based outreach center which is which is out of town and it's a v a facility so those those doctors they kind of cross over into our realm but what's nice about it is they know the veteran they understand the veterans life and that type of thing so when they're with them when they're talking with them and going over their charts you know they understand you know with that that veteran aspect is that it's that's invaluable not everywhere has that and then for special such a specialty appointments and they're done one of two ways our veterans know we've really worked on building our relationship with white river junction that you mentioned earlier there director damn am deb deborah amateur i mean we've built a super relationship with them so they're right at the forefront of a lot of our things that we're trying to do which is going to be so talk to me a little bit more about the customer satisfaction surveying that you do how does that work and who do you do you ask the veterans for their it's done on a ten to twelve percent of the population on a monthly basis randomly chosen by pinnacle not by us if the veteran is able they will speak directly to the  or the call the family member and there's a series of questions that they're asked from how is your food to or you know your stuff back from your laundry are responsive to your issues and concerns would you recommend a place you know also you know what do you value most about you or your loved one being at the veterans home so it's done monthly we receive the results if this survey is not done anonymously it gives us that ability to follow up our department heads look review them in anything less than a four we call the family member the veteran and say hey we heard most areas we are what's called best in class compared to other national though the nursing homes the one area most nursing home struggle with this food when you're trying to make dinner for one hundred fifty some people you're not going to have everyone's likes but we do take every response good or bad likes but we have done a change within the last year were prior was a lot of packaged foods and now it's almost all you know like like home cooking you know we're switching a lot in our culture in vermont to local food the good for you ok that's good for what ails you yeah if we take that away work in trouble another thing that is impressive in walking around the veterans home is that kind of art on the wall and you know the sense of community and connection with community and i know we yesterday was veterans day there's some event bending to and from that can parade that we're very fortunate the community is very generous to our veterans yesterday is just one example the parade inventin ends right at it basically our front door so our veterans are able to go out and participate in the services we put our our van and with some of our veterans but yesterday morning i went in and the local high school  local school elementary school has their fourth graders singing their heart out patriotic songs and you know as they're being ushered out the door and career going to be late for the parade you know they're hugging the veterans and saying thank you the local high school has students in every day that they're in session doing various things from yes it's need to be at a place we're not a phrase every day is veterans day because every day there's somebody new covered in the building going to the veterans thanking him for their service you know so if you stand back and watch it yeah you know you just see it happen little kids with cards i mean it doesn't have to be eleven november yeah so pretty cool i you know been kind of wondering about how to talk about the veterans home in terms of recruiting or you know so that  know about the veterans and know that it's there and available to them but also just the connection of what i do if i had a family member or if i was about to and i was interested in the veterans how would i connect up i just call and say i want to come and visit or you can call and say if you want you want to come and visit you can reach our marketing admissions coordinator or actually what i tell family members is stop in unannounced that way we don't know you're coming so you don't think they were rolled out the best silverware because you came to visit but i tell people when they come is what you see today is what you see every day so we don't mind unannounced visits but if you want to come in and schedule appointments more than happy to do that and show you around and i honestly i can't think of the one time when somebody dropped and that it wasn't a cell i mean honestly it's amazin so if you you come in and you visit your walk away going wow that's not what i thought yeah well and i was mentioning earlier that fun like is that the the bennington garden club you know they were in there with the veterans you know dig it up put it in i'm not a flower person and they're doing all that i mean it is absolutely beautiful when stuff is growing we were mentioned earlier talking about quality in things that we do one of the newer programs we have is called music and memory we were the only nursing home in the state of vermont to receive this grants it's a grant that provided us with i pods and i tunes gift cards and what we do is we individualize an i pod for a veteran or member with memory loss and we provide that to them to use or maybe they're anxious or upset and sort of medication and the results have been astounding and we had a veteran who because of his dementia and french being primary language didn't quite understand what we're trying to do and we took him to the bathroom and he got very upset the staff now put on his music he gets relaxed sometimes even dancing to the bathroom they take care of his needs and he comes back without the need for medication  having five or six homes the next couple weeks from across the state of vermont to come in and see this program so it's one of those just yeah other things that i was a research grant yeah it's called music and memory it's not a national program but we were the want the one home in vermont to receive the grant for and it's just been championing veterans issues in that state and i wonder what his connection with the entrance home is to you i talked to someone from his office on a regular basis when i go to washington for the national association of state veterans home when our conference i meet with him he's always right there anything we need you know what can i do for you guys always visiting as when he's in the area so from putting a good word in to make sure we get a v a grants and keeping us up to date on the latest hour and i think that we are you know your vermont veterans hold that it is a tremendous place and it's full of life it's you know there's people coming in for rehab there's people that live there there's i mean if it is truly a family and a home i mean it's you know you can use those things as buzzwords but when you walk around and you see it i mean that's what it is and it has that there are veterans you know we have veteran art we have military art we have flags with you know the red white and blue those things that mean something it's a message you can't stop giving or you can't sing it loud enough i think you said it well this morning we meet with our staff every morning and we kind of regroup over the weekend this past couple weeks and a lot of visitors and i know you were one of the other staff members heard someone say well this is a place you come to live not to die and i think that's the message you know it's very important that there's a lot of life behind the deer got to go beyond the deer well it's a very whole environments and i think that part of the mission that i want to bring forward is that the veterans yeah there is room there for people who want a place to come for their long term care of their veterans or veteran family spouses or parents that if if you you if understand the the whole continuum of care that here and shit in county we have the v a clinics that happens in other counties and then whole continuum of care including the bending for a long term care and i think as we get the message out you know a lot of people know a veteran that needs our services and you know vermont that's that's the vermont way of doing business people to people so yeah if the folks know somebody so we do want to say if you know somebody who is a veteran who you think would be interested in the vermont veterans home we do want you to contact  veterans home they're wonderful people there the tours are great the contact information is up on the screen and we hope that people from all across for months if they meet the criteria for participating veterans home would consider that as a real option for them or for their loved one and i want to kind of just wrap up by saying thank you so much for your service and the work that you do with vermont veterans because