In a milestone for a project seven years in the making, Navigator Homes welcomed its first residents into its facility last week.
Navigator Homes in Edgartown was designed to provide a more “personalized, homelike model of care” for residents, a press release from Martha’s Vineyard Hospital reads. Residents of Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, assisted by staff from the new nursing home and the hospital, made the successful transition into the new facility on Feb. 4.
According to the release, the move “marks the culmination of more than seven years of planning to address long-standing infrastructure and workforce challenges at the Windemere facility.” Many of the Windemere staff also transitioned with residents, “ensuring continuity of care and preserving the trusted relationships that have defined Windemere for more than three decades.”
Claire Seguin, Martha’s Vineyard Hospital president and chief operating officer, thanked Windemere staff members’ decades of care for seniors on the Island and congratulated the leadership of Navigator Homes for the continuation of care.
“This transition to Navigator Homes represents a renewed commitment on the part of the Island to care for seniors, providing homes and facilities for the residents,” Seguin said in the release.
Navigator Homes was designed to replace the aging Windemere facility, which the release stated had been a “cornerstone of the Island community” since 1994. Seniors received skilled nursing, rehabilitation, and long-term care for decades, but Windemere faced “significant operational and financial pressures, including annual losses driven largely by inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates,” according to the release. The Windemere facility will be incorporated into the restructuring of the hospital campus, including expansion of outpatient services and “reimagining campus infrastructure to meet community needs.”
“This is a momentous occasion for our Island community,” Denise Schepici, retired president of Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, said in the release. “Navigator will continue to provide the kind of dignified, loving care for seniors who live on the Island that was a hallmark of Windemere. I’m grateful to everyone who played a role in helping to bring this vision to reality. I’m especially thankful to the Norton family, who listened to that vision and sold the Edgartown property to the hospital. We spent a lot of time and effort on this project, but every moment was worth it.”
The new facility is located on Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road and consists of 48 units of housing for residents as well as 76 bedrooms for hospital staff. The project cost $68 million to complete.
The release said Navigator Homes was built based on the “small-house model,” which allows people who need skilled nursing care to “stay on the Island while receiving support from compassionate and engaged nursing teams in a comfortable setting where they can live with dignity, community connection, and purpose.”
Onsite staff housing on the campus also helps address longtime challenges to offering senior care on the Vineyard. According to the release, the Navigator Homes nonprofit is governed by an Island-based board, and the property will be managed by Alliance Health Management Services, which has over 25 years of experience operating skilled nursing facilities across the state.
“We are simply thrilled to see the dream of building a small-house nursing home to take care of the people of Martha’s Vineyard come to fruition,” Polly Brown, Navigator board treasurer, said in the release. “We know Alliance Health Management services will manage care with great skill and compassion.”
