I really didn't understand the difference between treatment and caring. As a result, while he was medical director at Chase Memorial Nursing Home, Dr. Thomas initiated what he called the Eden Alternative. The Eden Alternative stresses that a nursing home should be a place not for hopeless cases and institutionalized treatment but a home for the elderly to both receive and give care in a residential setting, a place for families to live, not for the elderly to go to die. They have 20 hours left to live a life. Costs of Implementation Evidence is mounting that in Edenized homes residents are healthier, live longer, and require less health care.
Employees are happier, say proponents, and staff turnover is significantly reduced.
Implementation is not cost-free, however. Beverly Enterprises and Genesis Elder Care, two of the nation's largest nursing home chains, have begun planning several Eden Alternative pilot projects. If successful, Beverly, with 637 facilities, may implement the concept systemwide, according to the Journal . Two states flanking Tennessee have already unofficially embraced the Eden Alternative. North Carolina has assembled a special Eden Coalition.