Bethea Retirement Community Skilled Nursing Addition

Recognizing that its current 50-year-old skilled nursing building was no longer able to meet the needs of today’s residents, Bethea Retirement Community partnered with RDG Planning & Design to reinvent the community’s skilled nursing environment and expand options for housing and varying levels of care. Incorporating Bethea’s mission of freedom, faith, fun, friends and fitness, RDG’s design for this 88-bed secure skilled nursing community configures the campus into four, 22-bed households, each focused on a different mode of care: one is dedicated to short-term rehabilitation, two provide long-term care and one specializes in memory care.

RDG’s design strategy incorporates dining and social spaces into each household to provide maximum access with minimal travel distance, creating a greater sense of independence and empowerment for residents. This householding model responds to operational and clinical efficiencies, striking a balance between the physical, emotional and psychological needs of this population. The size and scale of the spaces also supports permanent staffing, which reinforces the quality of life and level of care synonymous with the Bethea organization.