Residents get first look at new Heritage Manor

By: RAYMOND PARTSCH III
Managing Editor

The local community got its first glimpse at the new Heritage Manor Nursing Home.
At Tuesday’s Ville Platte Rotary Club meeting, Heritage Manor Administrator Trey Prudhomme revealed the first artist rendering and general floor plan for the new multi-million dollar facility slated to open in the fall of 2016.
Breaking ground at the new nursing and rehabilitation facility, located at 2020 West Main Street, is scheduled for August 3rd (weather permitting) and the project is expected to take an estimated 18 months to complete.
Ratcliff Construction, out of Alexandria, will handle the building of the facility, which is similar to the new nursing home facility constructed in St. Martinville.
“I have been trying to convince our ownership of this since I moved back home 15 years ago,” Prudhomme said. “It is a great feeling telling people that we are getting a new facility for our residents. Our company is reinvesting in our town and I am thrilled that it is going to be on the west side of town because that side of town needs something new. I am thrilled to be part of it.”
The oldest building at the current location at 220 S. Thompson dates back to 1963, with the latest upgrade-renovation occurring seven to eight years ago. The fact the current location is out to date was a major driving force in Pathway Management, the company that manages Heritage Manor as well as 31 other properties in Louisiana, deciding to invest in a brand new facility.
“The owners and senior management came to my building to talk to us about renovating again,” Prudhomme said. “They finally said that the building was antiquated and inefficient that we can’t keep pouring money into this place. So it was the right time.”
The new facility will have a central hub with four large hallways for rooms on both sides and three other smaller hallways with rooms will be able to house 117 to 122 residents. The facility currently houses 90 residents on site. It will also feature a secured Alzheimer’s unit consisting of 16 rooms.
The new layout and larger facility could allow Heritage Manor to expand its staff from 100 to roughly 120 employees.  
“My biggest challenge won’t be until about a month before we move in,” Prudhomme said. “Getting everything organized and trying to figure out how the building is going to flow operationally.”
He added, “We are going from an old maze of a building with two nursing stations and therapy and administration on one side of the building with patients on the other,” Prudhomme said. “We are going to be completely operating in a whole new way. We are going to be more centralized. Getting my employees to change our mentality on how we operate is the biggest challenge.”
Once construction is completed, and all patients have been transferred to their new quarters, Heritage Manor will represent the national trend of nursing home facilities in its layout as well as it what it provides to its residents.
“Our residents need a newer place,” Prudhomme said. “The other thing is that 40 years ago putting mom in a nursing home and having two or three other people in the room was not out of the norm. Now people are coming in and wanting a private room and private bath. That is a national trend and that is what we are going to provide.”