Heinzerling Foundation

www.heinzerling.org 

Facility Interview with Administrator Chris Rafeld & Executive Director Bob Heinzerling:

 

Heinzerling Foundation was nominated for their long history and dedication to their mission statement of providing a loving and nurturing place for individuals with developmental disabilities, their quality programming, nursing, therapy and dietary that they provide to each resident, as well as their community outreach. 

 

The Heinzerling Foundation was founded in 1959 and serves a community of 208 non-ambulatory residents with severe or profound developmental disabilities. They range in age from infancy to mature adults, with some spending their entire lifetime at the Foundation.

The Heinzerling Foundation provides round the clock, personalized care for every resident within its facilities. Each program and activity is designed to address the unique needs and preferences of each and every resident. All services are provided in a warm and stimulating home environment to give residents an exceptional quality of life.

 

The staff of over 500 people goes beyond highly trained caregivers. To the residents, they are trusted friends, family, and supporters, who encourage them to experience life to the fullest. Staff in all departments never pass residents in the hall without offering a warm smile, a loving hello, or a personal touch. The extra love and personal involvement staff bring to their work is largely responsible for the progress displayed by many of the residents.

The staff includes a variety of specialists including nurses, both RN’s and LPN’s, physicians, dentists, therapists, dieticians, social workers, consulting psychologists, educational specialists, and direct care specialists. In addition, auxiliary services are provided by the dietary, laundry, housekeeping, maintenance, and volunteer departments.

 

What is something special you would like us to know about your facility or your staff? 

Many of our senior staff, front line supervisors and front line staff have been with Heinzerling Foundation for over 30 years. Our medical director, Dr. Will Fernald, has been the only medical director and physician at the Memorial Foundation since 1959. The physician at Heinzerling Developmental Center, Dr. Pat Doyle, has been in his role for over 26 years. Several of our current residents were residents of Peck O’ Wee Ones. Our census is consistently at or near 100%. Our residents currently range in age from 2 to 80.

 

Our residents are the core of our organization. We work hard to be sure we are providing a loving and nurturing environment for them because the Heinzerling Foundation is their home. We work to ensure that we are providing a loving and nurturing environment for staff as well. Choosing to care for individuals who can not care for themselves is an awesome responsibility. It is very important that we support each other through the challenges as well as the joys of working with our residents. We do have a lot of fun!

We are looking forward to breaking ground for building our Outdoor Sensory Environment on our campus for our residents. We hope to begin that work in mid-2011. We continue to solicit donations and look for grants that would assist us in meeting this goal. This project will greatly enhance the services, learning and enjoyment we can provide to our residents. More information about this project can be found on our website, http://www.heinzerling.org/.

 

What is your favorite story related to this facility or your staff? 

Since the beginning of our organization, we have had an excellent record of preventing skin breakdown and more specifically, decubitus ulcers from even being an issue in both of our facilities.  We attribute this to excellent guidance and instruction about positioning techniques from our therapy staff, careful in-servicing of direct care staff by our nursing staff and ongoing close examination and observation of residents during daily care by our direct care staff. To have virtually no problem with or instances of decubiti among over 200 non-ambulatory residents, most of whom can not even reposition themselves, is truly remarkable and a testament to the excellent care our residents regularly receive from a dedicated and compassionate staff.

 

Awards and Commendations:

• 2010 Ohio Provider Resource Association Outstanding Team Award
• 2008, 2009 Ohio Provider Resource Association Outstanding Front Line Supervisor Award
• 2008 Outstanding Direct Support Professional Award
• 2007 Outstanding “Behind the Scenes’ Award
• 2006 Ohio Public Images Award of Merit for Publication-newsletter
• 1999 Business First “Socially Responsible” Award Recipient, Kathryn Heinzerling, then Executive Director for her leadership of the Heinzerling Foundation.

 

Community Involvement:

The goals of the Heinzerling Foundation are best met by the active involvement of the community. Therefore, we accept and encourage volunteers at all levels. More than sixty volunteers provide direct service or support services to the Foundation on a regular basis. In addition, hundreds of volunteers who are involved in service organizations, civic clubs, churches and schools provide additional support by completing community service projects.

 

Volunteers ranging from age from 11 to 83 assist in the physical and emotional care of the residents. They not only provide 1-on-1 friendship, but also assist with their communication, social, motor and self-help skills.

 

Licensed and skilled volunteer hairdressers come in monthly to provide stylish haircuts for 60-70 residents. Volunteer seamstress do general mending of the residents’ clothing, sew name tags in new clothing and make adaptive clothing and bibs. In addition, they sort, size and mend donated clothing. Clerical volunteers perform clerical duties for medical records, while gardening volunteers can be seen in the spring planting flowers and weeding the flower beds. A local artist decorates a large bulletin board announcing monthly events.

 

OUTDOOR SENSORY ENVIRONMENT SCHEDULED FOR COMPLETION

 

 

Skilled Care Pharmacy would like to congratulate The Heinzerling Foundation on their selection as Facility of the Month.  Thank you for all that you do for your customers, staff, vendors, and all those whom you serve in your community.