Elizabeth Seton Children’s Center, the nation’s largest nursing home caring for patients 21 and under, wants to build a new kind of operation that caters to young adults.
Officials have applied to the New York Department of Health to build a facility that would serve long-term care pediatric patients after they age out on their 22nd birthday. It would likely be home to residents ages 22 to 35, who are often too medically fragile to live in group homes yet socially isolated in typical skilled nursing facilities.
About 30% of residents who age out of her building die within 14 months of discharge, Seton CEO Patricia Tursi told the USA Today network. Seton, home to 169 residents, is studying whether to add floors to its Yonkers location or build a stand-alone building on adjacent property.
The setting would serve as a bridge that supports families and individuals with the kinds of intensive therapies often restricted to the pediatric age group. Seton provides an average of six nursing hours per patient, per day, Tursi said.
Many residents have communication disabilities or intellectual delays, and others require tracheostomy or ventilator care. More than 50 of them will age out within five years, USA Today network reported.
Although the center accepts referrals from hospitals, social services and rehab settings, the costs of its services are offset in large part by philanthropic outreach and support from the Catholic church.
The health department would not comment on any pending application, but a spokesperson told the newspaper that it is “supportive of developing long-term care models for young adults.”
