MERCER Nursing home gets state grant to remodel, convert building

Woodland Place is selling back some unneeded bed licenses to the state.
MERCER, Pa. -- Woodland Place, a former Mercer County nursing home, will get a face-lift and some independent-living apartments with the help of a $2 million state grant.
Drew Pierce, chief operating officer, said the money comes from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and is channeled through the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.
Woodland Place, located in Coolspring Township, became an independent facility in 1998.
It secured the grant by essentially selling back some of its bed licenses to the state, Pierce said.
Pennsylvania has a program in which nursing homes can "sell" their excess bed licenses back to the state, and Woodland Place, a 125-bed, skilled-nursing facility, has had an excess of 25 beds for the past several years, Pierce said.
It decided to sell those licenses back to the state in exchange for funding of a $2 million improvement project, he said.
The facility's first floor will be converted into 15 independent-living retirement apartments.
The grant also will pay to complete renovation of the skilled-nursing area on the second floor, converting four-bed wards into semi-private rooms, each with its own bathroom.
Finally, the building's exterior will get new windows and siding, Pierce said, noting that the job should be completed by mid-2004. The nursing home was built in 1960. It wasn't renovated until it became Woodland Place and a portion of the skilled-nursing area was renovated in 1998.
Some additional skilled-nursing renovations were done in 2000-01, but there were still 59 beds in the old ward configurations, Pierce said.