The Green House As A Nursing Home Model

As a nursing home model, Green Houses are obviously providers of long-term care services, including basic nursing and medical services. According to Kane et al., “A group of GHs on a campus or scattered in a residential neighborhood operates under a nursing home license and within a state’s usual Medicaid reimbursement amounts, although a redistribution of expenditures could occur (2007). Researchers of healthcare management (and healthcare managers themselves) have an interest in studying the differences healthcare management variables that arise between different nursing home models. Healthcare management factors of interest include a model’s financial feasibility (especially for nursing home services covered by some public funds, like Medicaid),

“Shabizim” also receive additional training and higher salaries in a Green House, compared to a traditional nursing home. Although higher salaries help to attract CNAs, researchers have found that CNAs are more likely to stay with an organization that values them and provides them with additional training (Wiener, Squillace, Anderson, & Khatutsky, 2009). From a healthcare management perspective, the GH model which promotes CNA well-being is of interest because happier, better-paid CNAs are less likely to switch jobs and increase employee turnover rates. Therefore, the Green House Project’s healthcare management philosophy could be emulated to reduce nursing home CNA turnover and improve residents’ quality of care. Evidently, the healthcare management discipline has interests that overlap (and can be used to study) the Green House nursing home model. The Green House Project offers unique insights regarding changes in nursing home management philosophies that can improve both, the health of residents, as well as the job satisfaction of CNAs. Since nursing home budgets, residents’ healthcare and CNA turnover rates, are important factors in nursing home management, the Green House Project is an excellent case study for the field of healthcare management, as

Loe and Moore describe the Green House environments as follows:

Unlike a traditional nursing home with a hospital-like feel, Green Houses are described as “de-institutionalized caregiving facilities. They . . . house 12 or fewer residents. They feature private rooms and full bathrooms, allowing for elder privacy and personality (elders decorate their own rooms). Each house has shared family-style communal spaces, including a hearth, dining area, and full kitchen. (2012).

A sense of privacy is an important characteristic of a home-like environment. As Cristofetti, Gennai, and Rodeschini describe it, “The home has always represented and symbolized the passage from the external world to the internal world, from the public sphere to the private one” (2011). The décor a person fills one’s house with makes it their home, as their personality and choices are intertwined with the space (Cristofetti, Gennai, & Rodeschini, 2011). By building small homes where residents can have real privacy and can decorate their own rooms, the Green Houses provide nursing home spaces that are truly home-like, rather than