2023 Improvements

Shady Oaks Family,

Last year, my relative was a resident, but she passed at a hospital. She felt frustrated by the hospital’s bad care.  During one of my visits there, she told me, “The Shady Oaks residents don’t know how good they have it.”  I felt both angry at the hospital and proud of our little home.

Shady Oaks did great things in 2023.  We gave great care, earned recognition, fought COVID, hired top staff, and made renovations.  We here share our annual update and invite survey replies.

Our efforts earned high praise in 2023.  The Connecticut Assisted Living Association awarded its highest achievement recognition, the Distinguished Service Award, to one of our CNAs.  She has worked 6 days a week since 2019.  Also, the CT Department of Public Health inspected us, and we again earned a perfect 100% rating.  This is our 2^nd year in a row for earning a perfect rating.  Plus in 2023, Bristol Press readers again voted us Best of Bristol, which is our 4^th year in a row.

In fighting COVID, Shady Oaks had just 2 resident cases over the year.  Meanwhile, Bristol’s 5 nursing homes reported 330 confirmed resident COVID cases and 9 deaths.  We feel proud we continued using KN95s, 175 air purifiers, and frequent tests.  We try hard to keep residents safe.

Our biggest non-COVID challenge was staff wage inflation.  We increased our RN budget 18%, boosted LPN evening pay 16%, and raised CNA starting wages to $24 hourly.  We also added 7 CNA staffing hours per day and gave special focus to improving PM care staff quality/quantity.

For recreation, we hosted our first ever Family Council meeting, and we began sharing monthly PDF activity calendars by email.  Each week for the whole year, we averaged 2 live professional musician performances, 2 group physical therapy sessions, 2 in-house bingo/game competitions, 2 guided arts and crafts sessions, 1 hairdressing day, 1 ministry visit, and many family visits.

For our building, we made important upgrades:

We added 6 large TVs for displaying resident photos, event calendars, and visitor greetings.
We renovated two downstairs resident rooms to improve accessibility, lighting, and privacy.
We expanded and re-tiled our main resident shower room to improve accessibility and care.
We completed $60,000+ of electrical outlet upgrades to hospital grade outlets for fire safety.
We spent $35,000+ to replace our bathroom fans for better ventilation, fire safety, and lighting.
We invested $40,000 for improved drainage lines to prevent flooding during heavy downpours.
We installed $30,000 of attic insulation to improve energy efficiency and temperature control.

Despite our best efforts and progress, we remember our resident losses.✞  With heavy but hopeful hearts, we pledge to continue providing strong nursing in a cozy and loyal home.  Thank you.

Very Respectfully,

Tyson Francis Belanger

✞ We offer heartfelt condolences for the passings of Rolande Dumond, Raymond Edgerly, Patricia Gallagher, Joan Gayley, Gertrude Gooler, Mary Phyllis Hardenstine, Velta Jahnke, John LaFrance, Irene Liptak, Clara Maloney, Margaret Mayer, George McConnon, Ruth Meusel, Eugene Minella, and Beverly Werner.  We also miss residents who moved: Karin Bukowksi, Robertine Duffy, Marilyn Gere, and Gil Vanasse.  We tried our best.  We hope we did well.