A nursing home and rehabilitation center in the Hudson Valley of New York state opened a day care center on its campus to tackle a big challenge: attracting and retaining employees in an area where child care is hard to find.
In June, the Ferncliff Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Rhinebeck opened the Honeybee Child Care Center in an underutilized wing. Ferncliff is run by ArchCare, the continuing care community of the Archdiocese of New York.
Ferncliff staffers, 76% of whom are women in need of child care services, get 25% off tuition at the day care, which has space for 41 infants, toddlers and preschool-age children. As of early August, the center had nine enrolled, about half of them children of Ferncliff staff, and expected more as word got out.
"A couple of days ago, we had a CNA with a young child come in and apply, tour the day care center, and accepted the full-time position immediately," said Dorice Tokarz, administrator of the nursing home. "She's absolutely thrilled."
Ferncliff isn't the only health care provider adding convenient child care as a workforce enticement and community service. Mercy Health-St. Rita's Medical Center in Lima, Ohio, opened a day care, Mercy Tots, in July. The center with room for 108 children is in a building donated to Mercy Health-St. Rita's, part of Bon Secours Mercy Health, just two blocks from the hospital. The child care opened to children of employees before welcoming the children of other families.
"We know access to safe, reliable child care is critical for working families, and we are thrilled to be able to open Mercy Tots to our greater Lima community," Aimee Kuhlman, director of Mercy Tots, said in a news release.
A unique setting
Ferncliff is planning a grand opening of its child care in October. Tokarz said staff members can visit their children at the day care as time permits. "They feel very secure that their children are on-site so they can go see them. It's nothing but positive reviews," she said.
Jason Hutchens, chief operating officer of ArchCare, said the ministry tries to meet the needs of the community it serves. By opening the day care, ArchCare can "provide another level of service while also helping our own" care providers, he said.
Rhinebeck is about 50 miles south of Albany and 100 miles north of New York City. Earlier this year, the New York comptroller released a report that said about 55% of census tracts in the mid-Hudson region are considered child care deserts, with at least three children under age 5 for each available slot among registered home-based providers or centers.
It has been difficult to staff the nursing home since the pandemic, and when a day care center nearby closed recently, ArchCare administrators knew that could exacerbate the situation.
Honeybee Child Care Corp. runs centers in Poughkeepsie and Wappingers Falls, just south of Rhinebeck. About two years ago, ArchCare administrators asked Kathy Evans, Honeybee's chief financial officer, if she would be interested in opening a center at Ferncliff. She said that would be financially difficult for her company. About a year later, ArchCare approached her again and proposed building the center. Evans worked with ArchCare to get the proper approvals and to plan and equip the space. Until October, ArchCare is letting Honeybee use the space rent-free.
The center has an outside entrance separate from Ferncliff's and an outdoor playground in a tree-filled setting. "It really is state-of-the-art," Tokarz said.
Uniting the generations
Ferncliff has a 66-bed Huntington's disease unit and a 37-bed, Montessori-based advanced memory care unit. Once more children are enrolled in the day care, Ferncliff and Honeybee plan to do intergenerational programming such as sing-alongs, crafts and holiday celebrations. A large auditorium at Ferncliff will make it easy to bring the groups together, Tokarz said.
Evans is excited about the possibilities at Ferncliff. The Honeybee day care in Poughkeepsie is next door to a nursing home and the children there regularly engage with the residents. "The kids call them the grandmas and the grandpas," she said.
Many of those "grandmas and grandpas" get few visitors, Evans pointed out. "When they see the kids, they just brighten up," she said. "It brings that light to them, that energy to them."