Momentum Builds for Private Rooms Amid Nursing Home Reform Push

The Biden administration has recently committed to phasing out multi-bed wards in nursing homes, while also promoting ways to implement more private rooms in long-term care.

As Vernon Homes moves closer to building its Green House community with residences that house just 12 elders and feature private bedrooms and baths, we are pleased to see the more personal, small-home concept gain recognition.

As our partner in this community, the Green House Project, points out, the federal government’s commitment is only one small step toward real reform, but an important one. Across the nation, eldercare leaders have another incentive to take action and transform institutional nursing homes into the real homes embodied in the Green House model.

Green House Project senior director Susan Ryan spoke about some of the concrete strategies that lawmakers can use to encourage small-home nursing care development. 

She said, “If government will step up and say, ‘Yes, we can, and here are some of the incentives we’re going to provide,’ and the providers will step up and say ‘Our good enough wasn’t good enough’ … I think we can make achievable change and really make a lasting impact.”

Ryan also advocated for ways to achieve physical and cultural transformation in nursing homes, saying, "Removing financial barriers like access to capital and Medicaid underfunding would be a step toward nursing home innovation, like the shift to private rooms and the small home model."

John Ponthie of Southern Administrative Services, which operates Green House homes across Arkansas, said, “People vote with their feet. During COVID, we grew our census. Everyone else had huge declines. Drop the mic. We’re done. The demand is there.”

We at Vernon Homes are excited to offer Vermont’s first Green House community, and to be part of a growing national movement.