It’s National Health Care Facilities and Engineering Week (Oct. 20-26), and Virginia Health Services celebrates its maintenance and facilities team members. The VHS team creates home-like environments for residents, makes sure safety is a top priority throughout its communities and takes on projects as the organization expands its services.

VHS operates three senior living communities, seven nursing and rehabilitation centers, and maintains offices for corporate support services, VHS Rehabilitation, VHS Home Health Care and VHS Home Hospice. The upkeep of each facility requires a team dedicated to working behind the scenes, changing light bulbs, checking the plumbing, and so much more.

Jesse Young, VHS Vice President of Facilities and Development, oversees facility maintenance and building improvements. He says the unique skill sets each member of the team has allows VHS to be nimble and efficient.

“Because our team have those specific skills, we can do things a lot of organizations can’t (without contracting),” he says. “The only way it works is because of them and what they bring to the table.”

Jesse and his team also work with contractors and other vendors to complete larger building improvements and upgrades, particularly those that are public-facing.

“It’s a team effort and it wouldn’t work without the full team,” Jess says. “That includes our vendor relationships. We have to work to build them and maintain clear communication.”

Facility updates

Jesse and his team have been coordinating with vendors and internal teams as the VHS communities undergo several building improvements, enhancements and upgrades this year.

James River

James River Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which opened 60 years ago, will have a new entrance and office space. The G.S. Mitchell unit has undergone renovations and reopens this month, while an updated dining room opened this spring.

“It’s the most significant facelift to any unit in many years,” Jesse said. “There isn’t a unit at James River that hasn’t been touched in some way.”

About half the building will have new paint, flooring, handrails, corner guards and artwork. The 23 rooms on the Mitchell unit and shared spaces were redone. And behind-the-scenes, significant heating and cooling work and pipe insulation is complete.

More projects will follow the completion of the front entrance.

Lancashire

Lancashire Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is preparing to open a Memory Care unit by the end of the year. The lobby also was updated with new flooring, paint, signage and artwork. Those updates will continue with new paint, handrails and corridor work that leads from the front to its resident units.

The unit being converted to Memory Care required the addition of security doors. A quiet room was added to the end of the hall for relaxation and decompression. There is fresh paint, flooring and artwork throughout. A living space was created to “feel like home,” Jesse says, with a kitchen area, lounge furniture and dining space.

“Hopefully, this becomes the pattern for where we’ll go with additional community upgrades — implementing a warmer, livelier feel with consistent branding,” Jesse says.

Coliseum

Two units at Coliseum Nursing and Rehabilitation Center also underwent significant improvements, with updated rooms and corridors.

This was done while rooms were in use by residents.

“That expanded the number of people involved. It took all building staff to coordinate residents while rooms were updated. The residents in rooms being work on would be relocated to somewhere safe and comfortable during the day and returned to their room when the work was completed that evening. The full Coliseum team was involved to ensure the least disruptions to the residents. We didn’t want to disrupts operations any more than we had to,” Jesse says.

Coliseum is no stranger to upgrades. Previous building projects included the opening of the Dialysis Den in 2023 and lobby upgrades.

Additional updates

The Arbors Independent Living also completed building improvements this year, including apartment upgrades with granite counters and stainless-steel appliances, flooring throughout the building, updated café fixtures, furniture and artwork, and new furnishings throughout the first floor.

The VHS facilities team also is working on upgrades to the lobbies of the remaining five nursing and rehabilitation centers over the next few years. Jesse says plans are being worked on for each, but the plan is to keep consistent use of materials (such as paint, flooring and artwork) across all communities.

Maintaining VHS

The upkeep of all communities falls on the support team in coordination with maintenance, housekeeping and environmental services.

For example, using the same materials means that the same color paint can be used for touch-ups across communities or the same cleaning chemicals for surfaces can be used. It creates efficiency across the organization.

The team also keeps up with daily tasks, such as changing light bulbs, plumbing repairs, door adjustments and more. Some of the tasks are major, and the corporate team helps handle larger-scale tasks, such as AC/heating unit replacements and boilers.

The work is done purposefully, Jesse says, and the team has to bring the atmosphere of transparency and communication so operations in the communities aren’t disrupted.

“This only works when all the pieces are there,” he says. “It’s fun; there’s never a dull moment.”

Join our team!

We are always on the search for talented jacks of all trades!

Among our career opportunities is an opening for an assistant project manager, which will report to Jesse and help oversee our building projects throughout the organization.

Visit vahs.com/careers to explore our opportunities and apply.