Moving to the new Tawes Nursing Home

Crisfield – People, paperwork, possessions and equipment have finally made the move from their 45-year-old nursing home to the brand new Alice B. Tawes Nursing & Rehabilitation Center.

As if that wasn’t complicated enough, McCready staffers conducted the transfer as if it were a flood-related disaster!

At 2 p.m. on Wednesday, September 8th, the emergency “Code Brown, Code Brown, Code Brown” was announced over the paging system. Critical staff members were called to report to an “incident command center” in the old nursing home building.

With that, the entire campus began operating under the federal National Incident Management System (NIMS) procedures that would be used should a real flood require evacuation.

Sixty-one residents and three rehabilitation patients were “evacuated” from the original building to the new, four-storey structure adjacent to McCready Memorial Hospital. Residents’ belongings had been transported to their new rooms the day before.

As if the disaster was real, the staff members “responding” were assigned to the key operations that responders to similar emergencies anywhere in the US would assume – planning, public information and communications, operations, logistics, safety, medical and technical matters plus liaisons with outside agencies needed during a flood evacuation.

Throughout the drill, real food and supplies were delivered to the residents but imaginary buses (wheelchair and stretchers) with staff assigned as “drivers” transported residents to other “nursing homes” and “hospitals” (the various floors of the new building).

Other actions needed during a real flood were accomplished or simulated and recorded on official NIMS forms. There was even an exercise designed to “get things back to normal after the flood water receded.”

All told, the “disaster” ended happily when the official “Code Brown all clear” echoed over the paging system at 7:45 p.m. Residents were finally settling into their new rooms and exhausted staff members who accomplished the move were looking forward to a good night’s sleep – and to the next day’s Welcome Home party for the residents.


What’s Next?

Now that the residents of the original Tawes Nursing Home are at home in the new one, what comes next?

McCready officials said that the old building will be demolished, a process that will probably take at least two months.

The demolition will make room for a new and permanent entrance to the structure – now, entry is through the service corridor connecting the McCready hospital building with the nursing home so laundry, meals and supplies can move readily through the campus.

The next step will be landscaping for the campus, signage, and of course, new parking areas.

Meanwhile, the fourth floor of the new Tawes building is being completed as a brand-new assisted living center – called Chesapeake Cove Assisted Living on the Bay – for seniors and other people who don’t want to remain in their private residences but are too active and healthy to consider a skilled nursing facility. McCready officials are completing the application process for the Chesapeake Cove’s Maryland license and finalizing pricing, staffing patterns and an array of services and amenities for prospective assisted living residents.

Resident Anna Pinder headed over to the new building the day before the move to get a look at her new room while her family, Carlotta and John Pinney of Crisfield, moved most of her clothes and possessions.

GNA April Sterling helped move residents’ hanging clothes.

Richard Bonner (left) and Ernest Jenkins, courtesy of the Harrison Group hotels in Ocean City, came equipped with valet carts to help.

LPN Dana Ruba packs up supplies in the old nursing home At 2 p.m. Wednesday, Chief Hope Davis hangs the emergency sign closing off the old nursing home in preparation for the move and the drill.

As soon as the drill was announced, the incident management team assembles to coordinate the move and document the evacuation drill.

The first residents to move head into their new home.

The day after the move, activities staff member Donna Milliner prepares to serve the “Welcome Home” cake at the residents first lunch in the new building.