More than Maintenance: The People of Matheny

What does it mean to maintain a healthcare environment where residents may live for decades?

In this special episode of the Healthcare Facilities Network Podcast, we travel to Matheny Medical and Educational Center in Peapack, New Jersey, to explore how facilities management supports an organization serving individuals with complex medical and developmental disabilities.

The conversation brings together Matheny's leadership team, facilities leaders, and frontline maintenance mechanics to examine how every role contributes to the safety, reliability, comfort, and daily experience of the residents who call Matheny home.

The episode explores the unique challenges of operating and maintaining a highly specialized healthcare environment, where facilities management is closely connected to the people and mission the organization serves. From long-term planning and operational leadership to the hands-on work of maintenance mechanics, the conversation highlights how a culture of service extends across every level of the organization.

Nancy Hamstra, Jim Campoli, Melissa Petracca, Felix Mushayandebvu, and Paul DeVenezia also share what makes Matheny's environment unique and why experiencing the organization firsthand offers a deeper understanding of the work being done every day.

For healthcare facilities professionals, this episode offers a powerful look at the people, purpose, and responsibility behind maintaining a place that is far more than a building.

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👥 Connect with Melissa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-petracca-81786a22/
👥 Felix Mushayandebvu
👥 Paul DeVenezia

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Transcript

What Makes Matheny Different

SPEAKER_04 0:00

We are a very unique place that serves a very unique population of people. We only serve the most medically complex developmentally disabled. While we function in our environment like a long-term care facility, we provide a higher level of care, which allows us to have an acute hospital. It's a specialty hospital license through the state of New Jersey. So it provides a unique set of challenges maintaining the building while also maintaining a hospital-like environment for our folks.

SPEAKER_02 0:39

So I I will just add to that.

SPEAKER_07 1:15

We've created the Healthcare Facilities Network, a content network designed specifically to help solve for these three pressing issues in healthcare facilities management. We bring on thought leaders and experts from across healthcare facilities management. All the way from the C-suite to the technician level, because at the end of the day, we're all invested in solving the aging issue. Thanks for tuning in. Look at our videos. You will find that is a theme across our content. This is the Healthcare Facilities Network. I'm your host, Peter Martin. For this particular episode, we visited Mithene down in Peapack, New Jersey. It's a little bit different than your normal acute care hospital. The main campus in Peapack is composed of a specialized hospital, a nonprofit uh private school, an adult daycare center, and a fine arts center. And then there's also seven group homes. So many different elements. They're joint commission certified. You'll hear about it as we go through the episode. But they the the um the folks at Metheny have complex um development disabilities, the residents, because they are long-term uh residents there who are in the hospital and then also avail themselves of the school. But children from the community also go to the school again for complex medical disabilities. Um during this episode, I speak to um their director of facilities, Jim Campley. And Jim is actually how we ended up doing this episode. I recruited Jim to Mithene two years ago now. And so Jim and I talk and we were talking about their mission. One of the biggest challenges that Mithene has, in addition to kind of the overall finances that most facilities struggle with or organizations struggle with, is also awareness that they're out there. And we really want to help promote the special mission of Methene because when you go there, you see that it is a very, very special place with a lot of vibrancy to it. A lot of vibrancy. First hooked into Metheny back in 2017, 2016, we did a recruitment for a director of FM at that time, too. So that person moved on. Jim came in. And so for this episode, we talked to Jim, who's the director, and Melissa Petraka, who's the manager. We talked to their president and CEO, Nancy Hamstra, and we speak with two of their maintenance mechanics, very good maintenance mechanics who do everything there. Felix, Musha Yandavu, and Paul Di Vinizia. And uh both guys tell interesting stories. Although they did not want to join the healthcare facilities network, they were a little leery. They did a great job. I told them don't be afraid. Guys like that, when they get talking, you learn what they do, and it's amazing. And so I appreciated Paul. And Felix joining, though they may not have wanted to. So I hope you will listen to this whole thing. Uh, because it's uh I don't know how to put it in words. You know, Jim says, if you want to visit us, you can, and they will tour you through that facility. And I would encourage you, if you were in that area, it's it was my second time down there, and um it is it's an incredibly impactful place. And so I just really want to quickly this is their uh summer, spring summer magazine. It was funny when I came back and looked at this, I realized that I had seen some of these people there, and I want to go through really, really quickly because I want to get to the main part of the story. But right here, this is one of their long-term employees. She's been there for 40 years. Her name is Charlene. I met Charlene when I was there. I didn't meet her. Melissa was touring me around the facility, so she's a unit clerk. But what was interesting to Charlene, and after Melissa talked to her, I said, Oh, wow, I was like, Is Charlene indicative of a lot of your employees here? And Melissa's like, Yeah, she is. So, in addition to being the unit clerk, she starts, I think, at six in the morning. She'll come in at 2:30 in the morning, she'll come in at three o'clock in the morning, she'll help in the kitchen, she'll help in a variety of different manners. When we actually stopped to talk to her, Charlene said to Melissa, hey, I don't like the orange that's in the cafeteria. Can I paint that a different color? Will you get me paint to do that? And so uh Melissa said she would. She also, Charlene also drives the van. So she is representative of the long-term employees who work at Mithini. Nancy will talk about the longevity of their staff. So Charlene would probably be embarrassed. I she doesn't know I was saying that, but it just it struck me when she said, Hey, can I paint the cafeteria? And then Melissa's like, Yeah, and she comes in at 2:30 in the morning. This is Josh Handler. Josh is a resident there. They call them not patients, but residents. The reason I bring that up, folks don't go in and out of Mithini. Josh is 60 years old, he has been there since 1968. Cindy, who's also on that page, she's been at Metheny 37 years ago. So this is home to the residents, and it's an old building. It has, you know, we talk about aging buildings, aging infrastructure, aging employees. It is aging buildings, it is aging infrastructure. You'll hear Tim and Melissa talk about how they keep it going, and it's a fantastic, fantastic story. So their residents, and when you walk around the facility, there's an incredible vibrancy to it, even though many of their uh residents have not many, they all have complex medical disabilities. You see in their faces, you see, even when they can't move, but their eyes of the residents will follow you. It is incredibly impactful. This is their wheelchair shop. We went here, this was on the bottom of the floor. I met two of the folks there. I met uh uh Christine, who's here, and I met Patrick, who's here, and then I met Ed, who's over here. But this wheelchair shop in the basement of Metheny does incredible work. You'll hear them talk about how for some of the residents, their only way to communicate is via their wheelchair. But these folks do an incredible job in the basement of Mathene getting those ready. You know, one of the other things, and one of the last things, when I was there, uh, you know, I was walking with Jim, and there was a bus um at the main door. I said, Jim, what does that bus do? And so he's like, you know, our residents go everywhere. You might think when you see the folks how they are profoundly disabled that they don't go anywhere, but that's not the case at all. They surf, they do yoga, they do art, they cook, they go to malls. I was at Mithini in June. This will get released probably July or early August. They'd had a prom two weeks earlier to me being there, and so all the residents went there. So yeah, I would say, you know, when I was leaving, I said to Jim and Melissa, there's an incredible vibrancy at this place. And it's their mission, every mission in healthcare is um is critical. But for some reason, the metheny has always impacted me. This was Emma. Emma's right here. Um, when Melissa and I were walking around, Emma was on a bike, and it was a large bike, obviously a little bit different, three wheels, and um, she was so excited to be on the bike, and Melissa stopped to talk to her. Melissa knows pretty much every resident in there, um, or knows every resident in there. But when we were there, um, Emma goes, Emma bike, Emma Bike. Emma wanted to get moving on that bike with her aid, and it was um off she went. You know, she was gone. So I hope you will listen to this whole story, Mathenie.org, if you want to learn more. And real quickly, we talk about uh aging employees. Jim is retired. So Jim had a long and distinguished career in FM in the Jersey area, managed the most complex medical and bivarium facilities, university hospital, um, number of locations in Jersey. And he was gonna go to Metheny for a short period of time, and he's still there. So Jim's retired working as director of FM. Nancy Hamstra, the president, she was on the board. She was retired. They asked her to come in, I think two, two and a half years ago. She'll tell you she's still there. So we talk about aging employees. Here we have two people who were retired working in major roles, and why are they doing it? You'll hear them in their own words, because the mission of Mithene. So, with that, I hope you enjoy this three-part episode with Jim and Melissa, with Paul and Felix, and with Nancy. Thanks for watching.

Touring The Campus And Mission

SPEAKER_07 10:28

Hello, we're back. This time joined by Jim Campoli, director. Melissa Petraka, facility manager. To you guys first, for the facilities folks, can you give us a sense for this facility as I look outside? What age, you know, but you know what facility folks are interested in. We talk about it all the time on the healthcare facilities network. The three biggest problems are aging buildings, aging infrastructure, and aging employees. All three of them tell us your facility, give us a

Aging Infrastructure Without Decanting

SPEAKER_07 11:00

sense.

SPEAKER_02 11:00

We have a facility on this campus that started around 1955 with one building from 1903. It was a converted um carriage house, and it was turned into a school. First building built was 1955. That was our first residential way. And at that time, the majority of people were self-abulating. All right. We built an addition in 1964, more to the tune of 1964 education buildings. Um, and we were originally designed to house 71 patients with a school than at the time handled anyone that was inside of it. Through that time, we had no major renovations. We did have an equipment change out in 1984 that that pretty much replaced 15, 10 through 20 ton split systems. In 2001, we redid the MCM, what we call the MCMD, to make it a modern clinic to serve our patients with modern office space. Again, that hasn't been touched since that time. We recently did a controls upgrade, and then we built the Art Center in 2001 as well. Again, original equipment from 2001. So we only encompass 111,000 square feet on this hill. But by age, our our equipment's functionally obsolete. You have been on a good capital program to replace components to give us increased reliability, but without decanting patients, we can't really address the infrastructure. So we're we're 1964 infrastructure.

SPEAKER_07 12:42

Wow, can I just add so it's interesting, without decanting patients, you can't upgrade the infrastructure. So what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 12:52

What do we do? So I'll give you, for instance, of Yellowzone. We two 12 and a half ton splits serve in Yellowzone. It's our pediatric unit. So we replaced the air handlers, we have to take the roof off because we were initially a flat roof that we decided in 19 around 1984 to put a roof on the facility. So that's when they replaced everything we want the splits. So we have to open the roof to directly replace the splits and then clean the existing ductwork and then replace the VAVs one by one by one with new controls. So our our airflows are still based on 1964, all right, and our distribution is still based on 1964. So we have we have modern production equipment, but we have modern controls and on a 1964 infrastructure. So it gives us increased reliability and much better control over the environment that we had even four or five years ago. So if we were to stay, if we're to stay on this hill, you know, our construction plan has to create a domino. Is that domino moving something to an existing structure and then opening that up for the first patient care domino? Is it developing something on this piece of property? I mean, that at this time we don't know, but we're we're currently looking into that.

SPEAKER_07 14:23

How many acres do you guys have here?

SPEAKER_02 14:24

We have 88 acres. Uh this, for those who don't know, Peapak, New Jersey, PePac Mendham, Chester is considered horse country. It's very pretty. This is New Jersey horse country. Um the property has great value, yeah, but it has limitations. We are one of 2,700 JCPL overhead customers as far as electric. We have very limited things that can happen on this campus. Emergency-wise, when we redevelop this campus, if we're going to remain on this hilltop, you know, we have to take in consideration we are our backup, not just generator power, water supply, fire suppression supply. Um, it's it's massive. Our you know, our utility upgrades will probably be double triple a traditional hospital just because of our location.

SPEAKER_07 15:16

Wow. So a lot of challenges. Yeah. So Melissa, in your role as facility manager, tell us about that.

Small Team Across Multiple Sites

SPEAKER_04 15:25

Uh we are a small but mighty team.

SPEAKER_07 15:29

How many people are part of the team?

SPEAKER_04 15:32

We currently, I have seven positions, I have one position open, uh, six currently filled. Um we are traditional shifts, um, and we have a mechanic, we have two mechanics that rotate weekends. Um in addition to this beautiful campus, we do support our seven grey homes, which are scattered through um Somerset County, Warren County, and um two up in Freeling Heisen. Um, we also have an adult day center in Hillsborough that we support as well. Um so it is um, you know, it it's unique to in the sense that you know we we try to stretch our resources as best as we can to support all of our locations.

SPEAKER_07 16:19

So and your seven folks they support your offsite locations as well? They do. Okay. So traveling. And we spoke earlier or later, depending upon what this falls, with Felix and Paul. They're part of your department, obviously. Yes. Excellent, excellent. How long have you now, Jim? I know how long you've been here. Was it over two years, two years ago? But Melissa, you you were here then but how long have you been at Metheny for?

SPEAKER_04 16:45

So I've been at Metheny. This year is my tenth year at Metheny.

SPEAKER_07 16:48

Okay. Yeah. And tell us a little bit about this place.

SPEAKER_04 16:55

This what it does. This place is, I think calling it special does a does it a little bit of a dissurface. Um, we are a very unique place that serves a very unique population of people. Um, we only serve the most medically complex developmentally disabled. Um while we function in our environment like a long-term care facility, we provide a higher level of care, which allows us to have an acute hospital. It's a specialty hospital license through the state of New Jersey. Um so it provides a unique set of challenges maintaining the building while also maintaining a hospital-like environment for our folks. Um I came here uh looking for a career change, and it's truly a special place that I've fallen in love with. Um, I find that everyone here, whether you're a maintenance mechanic or a nurse, um, it's a vocational calling. Um, it is it's a special place to be able to, it's a special place to be to be able to support our folks.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

So I I will just add to that as you know, I I come from running 10 million square photo of some of the most complex space that that that it is. BSL3 Lives, Bivariums, uh a teaching medical facility, and what happens here was more amazing than than than any of those things with very little technology. When as Moses said, everybody has multiple issues that they need to deal with. We have people who develop programs and develop chairs. Their wheelchair is their life, it's their environment, it's it's their bedroom, it's their living room.

Wheelchairs As Communication And Care

SPEAKER_02 18:55

And when you see that this is done by people doing tasks for other people with essentially no technology other than the seat babbing, it's humbling. It's it's like, wow, this still exists, and this is how our residents get the best service and the best life. When you come here, just unlike any other parent, first time I walk through, I came here with the idea nobody can take better care of my kids than I can. Well, that's not true. It's not true. Our our residents thrive here, and it's because of all of the very different programs of people that we have.

SPEAKER_07 19:37

The person who um their life is in their wheelchair. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

SPEAKER_04 19:45

So um as you walk through our facility, you'll see that there's no one wheelchair that is like the other. Uh, we truly customize the seating to the individual uh due to various positioning needs for all, not even just our 101 folks here, our folks in group homes. Um it is how they interact with the world. So you'll see various um various ways of moving in the wheelchair, whether it's if it's a power wheelchair, if someone has functionality of this pinky finger, they will make it so they have the ability to drive their wheelchair with that pinky finger. Wow. Um folks communicate differently than you and I do. Um many of our folks use different communication devices. So, you know, developing different stands or modalities to have that device mounted to their lap tray is crucial for them to be able to advocate for themselves, advocate for their needs, converse with their peers. Um things that we all take for granted, these chairs are truly what allows them to be immersed in the world around us.

SPEAKER_02 21:04

So I well, I can't speak to today's numbers when I first came here that time. 101 res. We had not had a decubide for over 22 months. That's for anyone in the healthcare world, that's an amazing statistic.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 21:24

Wow. Um, and you had you do that in-house, you the uh the wheelchair, the wheelchair uh tweak of tweaking. It's not even a good word, but what I've got the word proper word is.

SPEAKER_04 21:36

Truly construction.

SPEAKER_07 21:37

Construction.

SPEAKER_04 21:38

Yeah. Um we have a whole department. Rehab technology does wheelchair work.

SPEAKER_07 21:44

Wow. That's amazing. Well, what other stories are there from the Did you call it residents, patients, students?

SPEAKER_02 21:51

Could you have so they're truly all of it, right? They're truly patients, but you know, our patient stays aren't measured in days, they're measured in decades. So We we refer to them as residents because they were residents. Red, even though they're a patient, this is their home. All right. Which uh presents a whole nother level of challenges. You know, in a traditional hospital setting or a traditional long-term setting, you have turnover that allows you to do certain things. We thank God our our patients are here for decades. So it again, challenges in terminal planning, challenges in in taking care of the room that are unique to us or to someone's home.

SPEAKER_07 22:33

Yeah. When you came, Jim, um two years ago now, roughly, was there like and I know obviously you knew where you were going, but was there like an aha moment where you've like you said, you've worked big complex hospitals with challenges and but did you have an aha here?

SPEAKER_02 22:56

Yeah, so the the first aha, and I as you know, I retired because I could to come here. Um and you still retired. Yeah, so I'm enjoying retirement. I play less golf now than when I worked full-time. Um, Melissa took me through, and everything that she just spoke about was like I've never seen it before. And unless you come here, you've never seen it before. Yeah. You know, you know, I say, yeah, I sing, I ran a while. No, I have it. I came here, and that was the aha moment. It's like, wow, I want to do this. As time went on, and we'll say I go, what's this? And she goes, one of two answers. I won't need to get into at this moment. I'd be like, wow, okay, why? Right? And then you figure out the why. Everybody's always done everything with the best intent and with the limited resources they have. And again, I think we're in a good direction now where we have the confidence of most people here and the board that we're making very sound decisions on on what we're doing. But that was my aha moment, was the day I walked around, I was like, No, I haven't seen this before.

SPEAKER_00 24:14

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 24:15

It's funny, and less I want if you could talk about your career transition, but just kind of along those lines, Jim. So when Jack and I first came here, I don't know, it was eight, nine, ten years ago, it was obviously before you to do a recruitment. It was very similar for us. It's funny when you were talking about the wheelchairs. When we walked in the main entrance, one of the first residents we saw was in that wheelchair. And just like that's where it hits you, because it's not like people you would typically see in a wheelchair at acute care hospital. So this Matheny and the other was where I I've never forgotten was at Moth Cancer Center. We were doing a recruitment down there, and we were waiting in the uh in the um cafeteria before our appointment. And the patient walked through, and their face was just was gone, like from the nose to here. It just like the weight of the place hits you when you see something like that.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

Well, and I think you know what, after that aha moment it was kind of pro walk. We were taking it over, I remember this specifically. And Melissa stopped probably after I can't do all the time, but she stopped. I was like, Wow. She knows every single resident by name. And I was like, and it's not just that she knows their name, she knows their story, and she's stopping to interact with them because they wanted her to. And it's kind of in a world where you run, you walk quickly down hallways, and often you forget to say good morning. Yeah, right? Um, that was wow, this is very, very different. Yeah. You know, it again, people serving people. You know, I think in facilities, especially today with the technology, you get lost in what, oh wow. I I have 30,000 points that I monitor. You know, um, and you often forget that there's people we find lose doors.

SPEAKER_07 26:16

Yeah. Well, it's funny, we were just actually talking about that. We did we was talking to the guys from MD Anderson and talked about two extremes, right? Uh-huh. But they were talking about kind of like that alarm fatika. Like everything is monitored these days, and the alarms are going off all the time, and you kind of lose track, you lose track because you're it's overwhelming. It's just overwhelming. Melissa, what you said you wanted a career

Learning Facilities From Scratch

SPEAKER_07 26:40

change. Where did you come from?

SPEAKER_04 26:42

So I came from a completely different industry out of college. I worked in wealth management.

SPEAKER_06 26:49

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 26:49

Um, so completely different industry. Um, was fortunate enough to be laid off and was doing some searching, and um someone recommended that I look at Bethany because I wanted to do something completely different. Umly position that I was qualified for was the front desk receptionist. So I worked the second shift front desk reception. Um and it's there that I think I truly fell in love with this place because I have residents visit me in the evening and they're get they're greeting their own family members and visitors, or they're coming up to gossip with me and to see who's who's here tonight, you know. Um, so I really had the pleasure of getting to know our folks that way. Um and then, you know, we we were due for a joint commission survey, and the facilities department needed some assistance with that. Um have a little bit of you know compliance background working in a different industry, but compliance is compliance everywhere. Yeah. Um so I rearranged their books, and then I think I lasted at the sit at the front desk for six months, and they brought me into a coordinator role, and I've been in the department ever since. Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 28:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 28:10

What a great uh uh when you talk about filling roles and stuff. What a great uh pathway in. And it can really come from everyone's he asked people, there's really not usually a like a linear progression, right? Usually there's starts and stops and twists and turns for most people. So when you came into the role, no, obviously you've been here a while, but like what was it like walking into the facilities world for you?

SPEAKER_04 28:37

Um overwhelming. Um I didn't know what a fire pump was. You know, I had no background outside of attempting to maintain my own house. So this was a big stretch for me. Um but for me, I'm I'm a learner. I really fell in love with learning about everything that sort of makes that building run in there. So it's become not just a vocational calling to serve our patients, but I truly enjoy doing what we do, keeping that roof whole fully on today. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

And one of my pleasures is I got a lot of staff who have raised the level of director over the course of my career. Um none of them have gathered as much information or attained as much information in this period of time. So it's it's great having someone who wants to learn, and I occasionally get to after she does her presentation. Known to say not bad for their settings. Right?

SPEAKER_07 29:49

Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

And to that, we also have something else we have you interviewed Felix. I never met a person my age who wants to learn something new every day. Felix is asking me, okay, how do you do that? It's so it's enjoyable. I I get a great deal of enjoyment out of that.

Retention And A Career Ladder

SPEAKER_07 30:11

Yeah. Is the staff here um our most long-term? I know Felix is what, 23 and Paul's 29 years. Have you guys retained well?

SPEAKER_04 30:19

Um, we have retained well. Uh we do run the I would say a majority of our folks are more longer term. I think from there, uh, we have folks here since 2009, since the pandemic, and we have a couple of newer employees, uh like within the last two years. Um, so there is a range as far as um you're served.

SPEAKER_02 30:46

So we have, I've always believed in look at what you do, figure out what you do well. Yep, do it, get rid of the rest. So here we found some interesting things of what we do well versus what we should outsource. And so it's a different mix. Uh, for instance, I've never seen a group so small handle plowing the way our guys did. This was the worst year of New Jersey in a decade.

SPEAKER_00 31:11

Yeah, it's been a while.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

We we were better than every surrounding town with a very limited staff. Um, so we and to that point in today's market, as far as digging skilled trade. So Willis uh Victor, who is um the charger studio group, have a career to ladder program. They've just started and it looks like we're going to have our first service worker become a maintenance mechanic in the very refusal. We created a position in between. That's fair. And then we're hopeful that we can take another service worker who has address and put it through that cycle. So we're we're do we're looking at what we do well versus what we don't do well here or what more often than they ever have. Because it's where dynamic it can change from day to day.

SPEAKER_07 32:02

How does your service department and I assume they're a willing participant in this, and if a person's looking to better themselves, well, they're either going to do it with you or they're gonna leave. Is it is that kind of like the mindset that you guys interact with? Because I know there are some organizations where they're very protective of their foes.

SPEAKER_02 32:19

Well, we are becoming more protective of our folks, and we want the career ladder. Uh, for instance, this gentleman that you interviewed this morning, Hewlett started here as a VSP. He actually took care of Chuck McDonald. He was saying that. So we want, and it's to a purpose. We want to see our people advance. We encourage them to take care of his glasses and so forth. And we also need our people to read because, as you know, you just drove here. We're 30 miles away from a competitive parking box. All right, we can't match a lot of the the salaries and the benefit programs that larger institutions have. So once we get someone who wants to learn that they gets the word, we want the keys in the uh and we're you know, that's our alternate is coming up with that career path to feed ourselves. Because it's very hard, as you know, to to live off the offside world with it.

SPEAKER_07 33:22

It is, yeah, it is. How long did it take you guys to develop that career path?

SPEAKER_04 33:27

Not long, I would say. Um, I mean, we filled it very quickly uh the minute we rolled it out. Um we had to go to position control, develop it, see how it would float between myself, uh my department, and Victor's department. Um, you know, it's a dynamic role that, you know, has shared responsibilities between both of us, but it I was able to fill it once it was posted.

SPEAKER_07 33:55

I use a dynamic role with so are they both a service and a facility as a play? They do both? They do both in the beginning, yes.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Yeah, beginning, yes. Because of our we don't have a lot of the we don't have a lot of economies that we can utilize because of our size. Right. So that when they develop this, it was the person coming from environmental services would uh still share some of the duties that are learned when someone initially comes there like forecast and so forth. And then start catering on Andrew Bobble maintenance items like changing wipes, uh you know, responding to stoppages, and and so forth, and and row through that way. And then spent time with mechanic to work how to do HPS and so forth. And I believe that he started this probably about nine months after I came. And we had our first position about over a year ago, and we're gonna have our first transition into maintenance from there. And you know what, it predates me because we had one of our mechanics didn't come from an agency who was providing cleaning into a rank these positions, and we're just boga fever, so we had stubborn. Yeah. And conversely, we have we have a environmental service worker who has decided they want to pursue herself. So we all please pursue it. Go go to a direct support personnel role and pursue bad bath. How many employees are here in total? I believe we're somewhere around 600. One one thing that you find out is our employees is our staff arise of their ratio we use really all. And that's because of all of the support professional at me. Uh for instance in the school, uh We only have four students, but um, refalls fully. But you would like a 2000 year 11 with our our student compilation 2011. I want to say we have almost 60. Okay. But when you look at those 60 people, who was there to support? I think only one of them or two of them had a 101 nurse. And it was under 10 that had direct support for vegetables. So for that group of six, we had 72 people. We need to fit pleasure. Flash Europe for 42. And I do Rovember East Overstack, like nine of them have a one-on-one nurses. 27 27 of them have one-on-one parents. So, that that group, 20% smaller. We had to fit 20% more people in pleasure. And that's that's where we ran it up over there.

SPEAKER_07 36:54

What type of education programs do you have here?

SPEAKER_02 36:56

We have

School And Hospital Rules Crosswalk

SPEAKER_02 36:57

we're recognized by State New Jersey Quartant Recognition. Uh we issue a diploma when people graduate high school when they graduate 12th grade.

SPEAKER_04 37:06

We are in an APSSD school, so APSS. APSS, yeah. So um we are a out-of-district placement for public school children who um their educational needs are met by their existing district and we support our pediatric population uh through the age of 21.

SPEAKER_07 37:29

Okay, okay. So if at the local level, if a student has needs beyond what could be provided, they come here, don't catch here, little bad. So it's in there's a transitory uh in and out.

SPEAKER_04 37:46

Yes.

SPEAKER_07 37:47

You know what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_04 37:48

Yes, we have folks. Not very well.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

We have folks in and out, not bad, but and like our like our residents, the the students that we have and be quigat, uh most educated. You know, he the most detailed, the depiction, the most involved. Education. Uh people don't shoot this because there's not a margin.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

Alright. So we we are educating the children. We don't have the margin. And that's nothing against the people who are who are profiting off of it because they provide a valuable service. You know, but we we are educating those those people that there is no margin.

SPEAKER_07 38:30

Yeah. I wonder how much it cost in Eddie. Do you guys know that?

SPEAKER_02 38:35

It's it's an unbelievable sum of enough money that I will not quote these. Uh I I could be off by a wow.

SPEAKER_04 38:42

It's a lot of money.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

It's it's a tremendous when you think about what goes into a child. Think about it. We have children that are, I mean, near a meds, that have a nurse and a power by their side the entire time they are here.

SPEAKER_04 38:58

Being transported here via ambulance. Yes.

unknown 39:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Our class sizes are very small. Oh, I think with that, I think there's two very interesting things. When we were looking to move to a building, no one has that trace on his students. I mean, a flash rural should look. Yeah. So our our principal and Bruno and Bullis basically sat down a watch, a bit the math of it to create classrooms. You know, what would we need? You know, we have, okay, we can only put eight students up here. We need it. You know how higher education went away from a lecture hall? Well, we need a flat lecture hall.

SPEAKER_06 39:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:41

All right, because we need that width, right? And that's how many people we put in. And to their credit as well, one thing in New Jersey, um we're very unique. We have a department of education that has this whole set of rules that are labeled under the Department of Education, but they really 95% of them really exist under the Department of Health and Margaret Health Protection. So Melissa and Anne have been working out this crosswalk, which to my knowledge no one's ever done before, uh, for uh, you know, hospital ranks, higher education ranks, and New Jersey K-12 ranks, which is it's and we've talked about this before, and I'm sure she's gonna send it off to you when they're done, and they're pretty close to being done. Uh, and it's it's a great tool because we have this thing where we have to speak to the K-12 world, and you have to speak to the hospital world. Right. And as you know, there's differences between K-12, there's different higher education, hospital, private real estate. Well, one of our shortcomings as a facilities industry, it's 90% of that is common knowledge. Yeah, in in healthcare, we sat up here, like you know, neverman vote. And in in K-12, that they're a hospital, they don't know what they're doing. We we have to report to particular education. We're 90-95% of what we all do is common. Yeah, we have certifications for everything, right? Yeah. Well, you can't run the hospital, but you can't run K-12. You don't have this, you don't have that. Yeah. So, you know, as an industry, as industries, we we we have a lot of work to do.

SPEAKER_07 41:23

Yeah. Well, that's interesting, you just brought that up because I was thinking, so you guys, like, there's the academic component and and you're regulated, there's obviously the health tear component. You're regulated by joint commission, right? Joint commission, sorry. So what's and you're developing that crosswalk picture. But what's like what's is there anything not challenging, but like managing those different areas? It's very unique. I'm one campus, what are the needs and the info? It's a very challenging mosaic of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

It and what's challenging, what's a challenging mosaic are not the regulations, it's the people who are growing up under one of these umbrellas who have been taught over time, oh, that's not relevant here. When when when you peel the top off, you see, they're all referencing the same thing, but very few exceptions. That when you look at health care in New Jersey, Department of Education, 90% of the time, healthcare is running to a higher standard and has a more restrictive rule. But on this very limited number, this very limited criteria, Department of Education is running an extremely hot, you know, higher level. So it's we broadcast to everybody, we're going to run at the most restricted level. You know, we get, well, we don't need to do this many fire large quarters. Yes, we do, because we're covering two different entities.

SPEAKER_06 42:57

Right.

SPEAKER_02 42:58

So the balancing act is with the people, and you know what, as time goes on, with more exposure, the balancing act becomes easier because, you know, there's there's more input, there's more understanding. So um, but that's just not here, that's his industry as we do that.

SPEAKER_07 43:14

Right. Just uh I don't want to take off too much time, but

Metrics Versus Technology In Facilities

SPEAKER_07 43:19

more time. But you mentioned technology and kind of like the lack of technology within your buildings here. This question doesn't make any sense, but I'm just gonna throw that. Well, we it got me thinking, Jim, because we're always talking, right? We always talk about technology, we always talk about data, we always talk about AI, two different things.

SPEAKER_02 43:40

Data and technology.

SPEAKER_07 43:41

Well, you know why we're all them together? Because the like people have bad data, and if you have bad data, you're tech you're gonna have bad technology. So I always kind of just but how do you guys it's almost like going back into a simpler time, I guess. How do you like somebody saying we have lots of younger folks and And they've grown up in a technological world and they manage by technology. How do you guys do it here without creature comforts that most people are getting used to? Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 44:15

I will tell you that we are more of a metrics-based facilities department than 95% of the people out there. Just we do it a little bit differently. I started in this industry at a time when you pulled the index card out.

SPEAKER_08 44:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 44:31

The data on that index card is the same data that you have on a PC today. It's just more easily manipulated and more easily accessible. So to me, metrics and technology don't match. They're completely separate. When I think of technology, I think of automation, I think of control systems, and we are rebuilding our control systems. But again, technology is only good, no matter whether it's here or MB Anderson, is only good to the point that it's usable. Right? I at a prior institution, I will tell you, we had a gentleman, oh my god, nobody knows our BMS. He's retiring. We're gonna be screwed. Right? He retired. We went from 40 temperature calls a day to 20. All right, and that happens in more places than anybody wants to admit because people become enamored with the panel. Rather, that is a diagnostic tool. You still need to do the physical elements of it.

SPEAKER_08 45:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:35

All right, it allows you to do your job in a different way. So we're not that far behind. We just may not utilize the same systems as other people. An example, we do a a few, we maintain a few metrics that require these guys, not me anymore, to go into several different programs and several different areas to compile the information. If we um had some of the programs of larger institutions that that would be keystroke, right? We still have to do some of the manual labor to get to the keystroke. But the information that we collect, the information that we maintain, is good information, I'm gonna say just as good as anyone is doing for us to provide metrics. Uh we provide monthly metrics on every usable piece of work order and labor data. Victor provides metrics on we still do personal clothes and laundry on all our laundry data. Um we we fall within the 75 percentile of all the hospitals out there is as far as our building metrics, uh maintenance coverage, environmental services coverage, and we measure that and we maintain it again. We're go back 20 years, we're that's our process.

SPEAKER_08 47:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

Um someday it'll be great to have a more modern process, but to your point, if you don't have the index cards with the right information, doesn't matter how advanced you are, you're just gonna get that information, right?

SPEAKER_06 47:23

Right, right. I love that uh your line there, enamored with the panel.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

One of our things here, we're trying, we're making an attempt to teach our mechanics how to use it. And I use that line all the time. Is that this is just a diagnostic tool, right? And you need to know what you're looking at so that you can go to the equipment, troubleshoot the equipment without saying any names. We have a pretty bus vendor who I'm gonna look at this online. What's happened the last three times?

SPEAKER_04 47:58

It's more or less delayed a dispatch of a mechanical tech to come out and physically look.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

Because I'm I'm not a controls tech, but I can see a supply air temp, a return air temp, and and do the math.

SPEAKER_06 48:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

Right? Um, and that's what we need to get across to people. And unfortunately, not so much in hospitals, because typically we have people who who can understand it, but when you go into like the K-12s and public schools of the world, uh, where you know uh a building that, as we had the discussion before, you can turn on and turn off. Yeah, you know, where it created problems. Yeah, we're and you know, you come from a time like me, right? There was a time, Dolphin Place Air Handler, a Buffalo fan. Yeah, I'm gonna get 40 years out of that unit. Today's package units, you're replacing them in 15 to 17 years. Right, right, right. Controls, yeah. Um, I think the worst thing that we've seen is uh the life cycle of life safety components like fire alarms. All right, you're talking about a 7 to 11 year life cycle. When I'm sure you go into facilities where you see pyro panels from the 70s that still function. Right. So it, you know, it's it's uh that's how I think we've changed time. I you know, it's the basics are still the same. It's just how you use those basics and and how much information you can have at your fingertips.

SPEAKER_07 49:31

So last question for Jim Campoli, director, Mozilla Petraca, manager, facilities.

SPEAKER_05 49:36

Um

Balancing Compliance With A Real Home

SPEAKER_05 49:37

somebody who's watching us, what do you want them to take away about this place, about Mathini?

SPEAKER_04 49:46

What you can take away from a thingy that even a small facility like ours that does some pretty unique things with patients or problems or everybody else's problems. Yeah. Budgetary constraints to be aged on Munate. Whoa, Jim. It's not aging, it's aged.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

You have to you have to get the correct things.

SPEAKER_08 50:11

It's it's age.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

Aged up.

SPEAKER_07 50:16

We're not changing the tagline.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

We often have when we're doing tours and a medical director go AG, and our CEO will look at me. I go, age.

SPEAKER_04 50:28

We're there. We're all um, you know, our problems are the same as anybody else's. It's just what scale is it? Um we're small, but um, you know, everyone's problems are the same. Um and managing that within, I would say, a unique patient environment, that's the uniqueness. Um navigating someone's home, um towing the regulatory line while also making a room feel like someone's bedroom is a unique challenge for us. Um it's it's a balancing act. Um, you know, we hear all the time, and I'm sure you do too, it's everything is focused, you know, we're managing the problems, the equipment, and you know, putting out putting out all the fires all day long while attempting to maintain preventative maintenance on bold equipment. Really, the element that's unique to Metheny is we're also trying to infuse some life into our folks' bedrooms, some life into the building while making it feel because that's an element of care. Right. We're maybe three spaces removed of, you know, we're part of their care team. We're managing that environment for them. So it's uh for Methaney, it's to me, it's it's that's the meaningful element of it. It's why I like doing what what I do is I get to have a hand in their care. Um, it's not, you know, putting hands on patients or anything like that, but it's that's the unique factor.

SPEAKER_07 52:13

You know what's interesting, Jen, if you could go next, please. But what's interesting, it kind of hit me when you said that. I and I know it's not the saying, but I was just thinking, imagine if Joint Commission was in your house. Right. Or she would fail. Right. And if I don't know, perhaps it's too simplistic, but I was like, in a way, your folks are residents, they live here. That's their bedroom, that's their room. Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_02 52:42

So I would say, what do I want people to take away from here first? You can't take it away unless you actually come. You can't understand it unless you actually come. So there's an open invite to anyone who ever wants to see us. We love to have you. Just, you know, even if you don't have our phone number, you can show up the front desk and ask for Belissa. And she love giving a tour. And she will gladly take you away. Do you still?

SPEAKER_04 53:08

Sorry?

SPEAKER_02 53:09

Do you still like giving tour should be a chance? I do.

SPEAKER_04 53:11

I do. I love showing this place out.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

With that being said, I think what I learned is it doesn't matter the size, it doesn't matter the fiscal stability. We're in healthcare, we're all in the business of improving lives. Our way of improving a life is over a longer period of time and in a different environment than someone going into a hospital for three days researcher, or someone with an infection going into a unit for recovery. We're all doing the same thing. And I tell you that from my experience in Halls Gary Witch Benz, back to 1984, we're giving more for the dollar than any place I've ever been.

unknown 54:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:14

And with less dollars.

unknown 54:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:16

So, and again, you can't really understand it unless you come here.

SPEAKER_06 54:20

Right.

SPEAKER_02 54:20

But but I that's what I'd like people to take away. We're, you know, we're not the Mayo Clinic. You know, we're not a Manhattan hospital, but we give our patients, residents, everything they need to thrive.

SPEAKER_07 54:37

Yeah. Well, that's awesome. And I would, not to make your life busier. But I mean, Jim's right, like I said, when it first came out here, however long ago it was, there's nothing like seeing your facility here. It reminds me, you, like you said, you know, 111,000 square feet, but just visually, I just see like a Bible or like this massive dictionary, and that's your facility. Like it's much more than 111,000. You pack thousands of pages within within this footprint, and it's it's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 55:12

And then just when you're up here and you see where we are, you know there's usually two igles in the tree right outside of his office. Yeah, we have we had um Somerset County come up. We have 55 species of birds. Now, where else we have students, right? Yeah, so we had students where Paul, who you met, built bird houses, deconstructed the bird houses so that the students could put them together.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

And paint them.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

And paint them, put them out on the nature trail for the students to go out with their with their art teacher this year to find that four of them were inhabited with nests. Right? Then they went back and read up on it and found out that, hey, these birdhouses, you know, you stand a better chance of them being inhabited if they face, I think it was northeast. South. Or they face your sorry direction. They went out with a compass with their students, and it's like, oh wow, the ones that are inhabited, cool. Yeah. Face this direct, so they switch some others, and now they have birds pocaling ghosts. Wow. So it's you know, there's things that you you just you pass up, you don't think about. Yeah. Uh you know, for people like events, beginning of the spring. There's 101 people person drum circle out behind the building. Right?

SPEAKER_04 56:34

Yeah. Last week we had we covered our court our back courtyard area with foam. We had a whole foam party. Think of 101 folks in wheelchairs. Wheeling their wheelchairs through foam.

SPEAKER_02 56:47

Oh, the big foam?

SPEAKER_04 56:48

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

I was like, get a bunch of toothbrushes for cleaning wheelchairs.

SPEAKER_07 56:51

Yeah. Did I see that on that thing?

SPEAKER_02 56:53

You probably was posting.

SPEAKER_07 56:55

Probably, yes. It was posted. Yeah. Wow. Well, Melissa, Jim, man. It's it's unique. It's a unique environment. I appreciate um, I appreciate your time. I appreciate you having me.

unknown 57:07

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 57:08

Thank you for coming.

SPEAKER_07 57:09

My pleasure. We will be back. If you like this video, please like and subscribe to the network. And more importantly, share it with your colleagues in the healthcare industry. Together, we can solve the aging crisis that's impacting all of us. So we're

Mechanics Tell The Real Day-To-Day

SPEAKER_07 57:30

here in the breakout room with two of the fine maintenance mechanics here at Metheny. I am uh pleased to be joined by my guest Paul Di Venizia and Felix Musha Yandavu. Correct. Perfect. So I thank I I thank Paul and Felix for joining me. And what we wanted to do with Paul and Felix here, first guys, can you tell us how long have you been working here at Mathieu?

SPEAKER_05 57:58

I've been at Mathi for over 29 years, a little over 29 years. Long time. Yeah? A lot guy, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 58:05

So you've probably seen a lot come and go over those 20 years. Oh, yes. Oh, without a doubt. Yes. Hey, Felix, you.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

I've been here for 23 years.

SPEAKER_07 58:14

23 years. So a typical day here at Mahini, what does it look like?

SPEAKER_05 58:21

Is there a typical day? Well, that's a good question because there really is not. Uh Felix and I always um talk about you'll never know what you encounter from day to day. Um, you know, I was hired as the cabinet maker 29 years ago. Um, and I remember the original ad said um and other duties as assigned. So, you know, little did I know that um I would be cutting grass, plowing, uh shoveling snow, um, you know, uh doing some uh masonry work, whatever we had to do. Um and which made it very refreshing because I feel I'm very much well rounded now. Yep, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:01

So I think uh over here you can't plan that oh, this day will be like this. No. With maintenance it's a no. With taking big things which can just arise, yes. And you have to attend to them.

SPEAKER_06 59:21

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

Like this morning, I I always do my morning rounds. This morning to my surprise, I go down is having you to check the pump water pumps find that the pumps are down. So that means my whole day if it means that the electricians or the pump service guys don't come in time, it will be a day where I have to spend checking on the pumps all the time, seeing where we are. That's the type of maintenance we do.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:02

So the day is never yours, and that was caused was that caused by the thunderstorm last night that were authorized.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

I think so.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:08

Yeah, so even while you're home sleeping, your facility's getting impacted. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:14

So sometimes we get called Julie night.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:17

Yes, the 24-7 operations, so that's what we signed up for when we became maintenance mechanics, is um, you know, we're we're here at um whenever um Atini needs us.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:30

What is it? Like on Friday. I was called around 11 o'clock at night. Not one of the patient beds was broken, and we had to exchange. So I had to go.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:47

11 o'clock. Yeah, and at night. Tell us a little bit about the patients here at Mithini and some of the uniqueness in working here at Mithemi.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:59

Oh boy, the the patients are all so so unique. They they really brighten our days. Uh just walking in the hallways and and and doing our jobs. Um uh we have so many special relationships with a lot of a lot of the patients, a lot of the residents that um um, you know, will make us laugh, make us make us um uh you know motivated to do things really for them because that's why we're here. And uh it's you know, I know Felix and I, especially Felix likes to likes to joke around with uh uh some of the patients. Uh we know what we can uh uh you know what they say to us and what we say to them can uh can result in a a lot of laughter.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:46

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the patient is here. We have a number of them who can't talk, but you can tell that uh they are happy, or today they are not happy by the way they they do. Yeah, those who can talk it's uh it makes our thing. Absolutely, yeah. Because they can even shout when you are at a distance calling your name come here and you go there. Yeah, I mean this that this that this that and you know if you sometimes if you go check on what they are saying, you'll find it real. And if you fix that, they'll be very thankful. Oh, thank you. And it makes your date.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:42

Absolutely very thankful for what you think into for them, and uh they don't they probably don't realize how much they give back out still, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:51

It really is satisfying and very friendly, also they are.

SPEAKER_07 1:02:57

Yeah, how long and uh you may not know the answer, but so do you call them residents or patients?

SPEAKER_05 1:03:03

Well, we we interchange both, but we also call them students, right? Back in the day, we used to call them students, um um, patients, residents. Sometimes we we mostly refer to them as these days as residents. Yeah, yeah, because they're residents.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:21

How long, what's the longest that you've had a resident stay here? Do you does anything does one come to the top of your mind where you were interacting with a resident for you know 10 plus 15 plus years? Does it go that long or absolutely because the agers are what three to twenty one?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:40

Or no, there are some who are older than that's yeah, much older.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:45

Um, you know, on we're we're not um we don't work directly with the students with the residents, so we uh we don't know a lot of the personal yeah you know interactions, but we you know, for example, there are some that have been here since I started almost that you know, maybe just a little after they came to Mithenia, a little after I started, so quite a long time, you know.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:10

Yeah, yeah, that's that's a while. Is there any patient, any resident that stands out to you, Betch, but that you remember any experience that you've just never forgotten?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:24

I mean, say do you mean one these ones who are still here or even those who fear or gone?

SPEAKER_06 1:04:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:33

One of them was Mr. Mafine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:38

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:40

I used to, like uh Sam Hunkins, I used to take care of him sometimes, go take him to church on a sun on Sundays. Oh, whoever fully find out. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's a good one.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:56

They they used to argue too back and forth, and uh, you know, he would get a little upset with Felix and Philip, oh, you know, if you don't want to, you know, um, if you don't want me to take care of you and and you know, because he used to be his personal like PCA, they called it back in the day. Uh, you know, Felix would tell him, Well, then we're gonna delay you eating breakfast. And then eventually he would he would he would come back, okay, Felix, all right. What's for breakfast? Um, and I always told him too, I said, Chuck, you know, um your brothers, this is your brother. He's like, I don't want any Red Spy brothers. So uh and I said, Well, I see the family resemblance, you know. But he was, oh my god, he was amazing. What an amazing man. He'll never we'll never forget Chuck. Chuck is always oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:48

One other thing is we are still putting his start, his star which we call Chuck Martini star.

SPEAKER_05 1:05:56

The Christmas star. Yeah, I actually made it um uh probably. 25 years ago, the original star had um was a solid piece of uh plywood. Um, and up here on the on the mountain, it got battered. And um, so I I made an open frame five-point Christian star, and um and uh with lights in every we let we, you know, he Chuck would tell me, Paul, December 1st, I want that star up on the roof. So every year, ever since 25 years ago, I made sure that that star was on under roof, and then after the epiphany, uh usually after uh January 8th, uh, you know, we would take it down.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:40

Wow. Yeah, because you guys are located on a beautiful piece of property on top of uh it's a beautiful it's a beautiful spot.

SPEAKER_05 1:06:48

That thing you can see it uh if it's during night when it's up there, you can see it from 2060 if you find the well yeah, you find the the right uh view between the trees.

SPEAKER_07 1:07:01

Oh that's awesome. So Paul and and Felix have a day job that they need to go to, so I can't keep going, but just let's go um back to like the maintenance perspective or kind of your day-to-day. What are some of the challenges that you guys face in your job, in your role?

SPEAKER_05 1:07:21

Um well, it's um it's definitely not uh working materials. Matheny gives us everything we need, our tools, our material, whatever uh we need to do the job, we're always uh given uh the ability to do so. But uh there's times when we have to redirect our attention to to something else that arose that's more important and usually involving, you know, um uh the students. Um so you know, we we what uh when I was hired as a cabinet maker, I was not spending eight hours in the wood shop. I was, you know, breaking that up, doing other things as needed. So Jack of all trades. Yeah, more or less, yeah. Except the electrical Felix does, oh my god, he's amazing with metal work. He we all we found our little niches too. Felix, uh, I mean, I'm the woodworker. Felix is the metalworker. The things he created out of metal and the inventions that he created are just incredible. Um he made a um you know carts out of old discarded uh uh doll uh uh shower trolleys for a certain and just used parts uh manufacturing something that we needed around the the uh the premises.

SPEAKER_07 1:08:37

So do you remember the old show MacGyver?

SPEAKER_05 1:08:39

Oh yes, is he MacGyver? Oh, without doubt. Without doubt. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:47

Well, you know, like uh some of the challenges we may face is we are provided everything to use, but sometimes the challenge here would be like uh it's something which we don't know. Yeah, that's where you have a challenge now. So you have to wait for someone to come from outside, yet you want it done right there.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:14

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So calling in like an outside subcontractor or come, but not it at our time, but that's one thing we can say.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:26

Sometimes it gives us a little bit of charity. Like right now, we always have this older issue. The water guys have been calmed. You don't know what time they would have.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:37

Right. Because they're facing the same challenge, but they don't have enough city grilling. Yeah, it's tough. Yeah, and you guys you got your residence and your buildings right there. Last question, I promise, you're wearing two shirts, Miles from Mithini.

Smiles For Matheny And Community

SPEAKER_07 1:09:50

What's Miles from Athenny?

SPEAKER_05 1:09:52

Well, Miles from Mithini is the uh largest fundraiser at Mathenee, and um it it I I don't remember exactly how many, I believe 25 years. Am I wrong? Um it's been almost the same time we use the Murray Star, yeah. So uh uh maybe around 20 years ago, we were asked to start participating uh in it, and it's just a huge event uh with outside of the um uh public relations department and the uh you know um uh development department run it, and uh they get all kinds of um um uh vendors and supporters that uh will uh will come and uh the main event, of course, is the uh wheelchair uh walk and wheel and walk. Uh so uh the residents will parade around uh this year we had it on the premises here, so and uh you know they're cheered as they go along. It's just an amazing event and it really raises the morale at Matthew.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:00

Excellent. Yeah, it's a time when most of uh the staff even those who are who don't work directly with the students that they will be together with it.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:15

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:16

So everyone who is at my clinic will be together with the students when can have time to interact with two or things.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:28

Yeah, yeah. How many masters? 3.1.

SPEAKER_05 1:11:32

Well, there is there is a uh a 5k for the and there's a kids run and uh um and there's the uh like I said, the main event is the uh the residence. Yeah, and they come from the group homes also, so you know we have five group homes. Uh they and uh it's it's quite an event. Um it's amazing to see and uh to be part of. We're actually blessed to be part of it all these years.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:57

Well, I appreciate the time, I guess. I have to put my glasses on because I hate butchering last name. Paul Di Venezia. Divinesia. Divine. Americanized. Americanized. And you told me that. And Felix Musha Yandevo. Quite, Musha Yandevo. Better than I did. I thank you for uh coming on to America. I told you it would be painless. That wasn't bad, right? Thank you, gentlemen. We will be back. So

CEO Perspective On Decades-Long Care

SPEAKER_07 1:12:27

I'm here with Nancy Hamstra. Nancy is the CEO, president of Mathiti. Nancy, you have an interesting career. I mean, you've worked in large organizations at the CEO level, large acute care organizations, UN, UMN, I'm gonna get the acronyms wrong, University Hospital for many years. Compare and contrast, if you will, the differences between large acute care footprint medical center and here now at Matheney.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:01

Great. So I I did spend a lot, most of my career at UMDNJ at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which is now no longer in existence. So the medical schools um migrated into Rutgers and the Hospital, University Hospital is a standalone state of New Jersey um hospital. And um it's an academic medical center. So it's the place where people who are at the top of their profession are training the next generation of healthcare workers. So medical students, nursing students, physical therapy students. Um and and we were, you know, we're in the city of Newark, a large urban population, level one trauma center, liver transplant center, um, level three nursery. Well uh so it was a very busy, very dynamic environment um with people who were teaching as well as practicing their profession, and they were at the top of their game. And um, you know, people would come, patients would come in and out of the facility and you measure your contact time with them in their length of stay by days. Three days, four days, five days, three weeks. Here at Methaney, um the adults and children that we serve in our special hospital, we measure their length of stay by years. And and many of our patients have been with us the majority of their life. So very different, um, a different physical environment, very different relationship with the patients. The care providers here really get to know the patients. Uh more so than you would ever see in an acute care environment where someone comes and and maybe stays for four or five days or even two weeks. You might get to know family members or visitors that come. You you may get to know a little bit more about the patient if their stay is is a three-week rather than three days. But here at Methaney, we we get to know and be part of all their life experiences, all of their milestones. We run not only this special hospital, but we run a school. And we just last week had high school graduation for two of our patients. Um they have been with us for most of their lives. And and it's interesting, um half of our patients don't have family. Either they don't have family alive or they don't have family that's involved. But the auditorium was filled because their family is really the Methaney care teams. And and the the people that came in to see the two graduates go across the stage and make their speech. Um, that's the Methaney family.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:22

So very different. Um, different relationship with the patients, different relationship with the family members, too. For the patients that do have involved family members, um, we have a parent advisory group. We get to know, we get to know them, we get to know their challenges. Um, we we have meetings, periodic meetings with them. And um it's a whole different relationship.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:50

Yeah, that's a great answer. It's funny, I've talked to a number of your people, you know, folks who work here, and relationship is such a key game. So like when you said the word relationship, sometimes it's getting you get hit by like a bolt of light. I was like, that's what it is. You know, it's so unique here compared to other places.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:10

It is. I you know, it took me a while, and and your questions prompted me to think about the difference. And when you walk the halls of Methaney, you can feel the love. You can see, you know, you have some of our patients or many of our patients are non-verbal, but there's not an employee that walks past someone in a hallway or someone in a room that doesn't engage in some way with that patient. Yeah, and you could feel, you can actually feel the love.

SPEAKER_07 1:17:50

Yeah, yeah, no, you can't, you know, it's funny, Melissa and Jim took me around for a great tour. You know, you guys pack so much in here, it's amazing. And and I said to those, to Jim and Melissa when we're at lunch, like your halls are vibrant, and you feel that. Like, even though your patients or your residents, I know people use different words for it, are um are are profoundly impacted, but yet it's vibrant, and everybody has a unique personality, and they're all engaged.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:25

And it's interesting because you know, there's a bunch of rules, bunch of rules for running a hospital, and and and certainly even more rules for running a school, but this is where people live too. So we're always balancing. We uh allow certain things to happen in in their space, in their room. Um, but but again, this is a hospital, so we have all the rules that you have in an acute care setting or in a long-term care setting about bringing in appliances and and decorating and um you know ceiling penetrations and all all the concerns that you have. Yeah, um, but this is their home too. So we we do let the the residents and the patients, we and we operate group homes as well. So if if one of our um residents wants to paint their room purple, we paint their room purple. We let them have that choice, and um they can decorate within reason as long as it's not a safety issue. This is their space, this is their home.

SPEAKER_07 1:19:35

Yep, this is their home. Heard lots of great stories, and there's one that Jim told off camera that we didn't get, but you mentioned it earlier. Would you mind telling me um Berthaus story? Oh, sure. Which I think shows some great unique things.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:50

So we have an extremely talented um team member in our maintenance team, Paul. Uh and he he is so creative and so talented. And the school was looking for a project for the students, the high school students, to do. So Paul created birdhouses that could be assembled by the students and painted by the students. And we have a nature book, and they installed the birdhouses, and we had someone from the county come and do a program for us regarding the migratory birds that actually are on our campus. So it was a full circle event. It was, you know, and and the school actually asked permission to name the nature walk after Paul. Oh wow. So he he was so touched. It was a surprise to him at the at that day. And um and it real and people enjoy people enjoy going on the nature walk and looking at the different birdhouses, and they're every single one of them is is decorated differently because our students are so different and so unique. And um, I think the the last report I had, four of them, actually had nest.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:12

Amazing.

unknown 1:21:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:14

But it it's a good example of how everybody here chips in and and the teamwork really is what leads to the success.

SPEAKER_07 1:21:24

Yeah. Was there um was there something that surprised you about McDhane when you started that you didn't expect? I'm sure you did your due diligence, you were aware of the you were aware of it, but was there something when you actually got in C like boy, I didn't expect that.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:46

There's a lot of strength in the organization here. The um the thing that surprised me most was the talented people here and the teamwork. I had

Life Enrichment Plus Funding Challenges

SPEAKER_03 1:22:00

never worked with um life enrichment experts. So we have an LET team, life enrichment team. And um Tess, what do they do?

SPEAKER_06 1:22:12

So sorry, because I haven't I'm not familiar with that.

SPEAKER_03 1:22:14

What don't they do? I mean, they are in charge of life enrichment, they run programs, they create experiences and opportunities for fun and joy, and opportunities to to achieve. So so one day they may be training people for the special Olympic event. Wow, another day they're taking some people out kayaking. Just last week, the entire green zone was covered in foam because they had a foam party and music, and it they're just in charge of fun. Once a month they have um what they call elegant dining. And it's usually a theme. In May it was Cinco de Mayo, in March it was St. Patrick's Day, um, I'm sure the Fourth of July one is coming up next week, and it's just an opportunity to celebrate in the moment and create joy and inclusion and fun. Yeah, and and they're so good at it, they are so good at it, and it's not just them because you you see the nurses actually dancing, and you see so if the music is on and it's a dance party, everybody's dancing. Um, they tried to get me to go through the foam. I had and I almost went, I almost went. Um and next time they do it, I'm definitely gonna bring different clothes so that I can go through the phone. But it they stimulate the fun, but everybody jumps in. And you know, whether it's a housekeeper or or the maintenance team or the nurses or the doctors, everybody on the unit is there just to create a sense of purpose and and a sense of joy in the moment.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:15

Wow, it's so you don't have the we had therapists in an acute care hospital, physical therapist, occupational therapist. And and we did have fun at university hospital, but there was nobody's job to have fun. They create such joy and fun, and and it's infectious. It it um special people do that kind of work, and and we're fortunate that that we have such a a talented team here.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:47

Yeah. Well, when uh we were walking outside, one of your buses was right in front of the main entrance, and I asked Jim, I said, Well, where do the buses go? And he said that he's like, Water skiing or water events. Uh, I guess what, a couple of weeks ago it went to the mall because you guys had a prom. And so it it took residents to get their prom dresses.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:07

Exactly. They'll they'll go to the nail salon or they'll they'll go out shopping to the mall, or sometimes they'll go to a sporting event. Um and and the life enrichment team, they sometimes will drive the bus. Um they went on an overnight trip. So not only the life enrichment team, but a nurse had to go with on an overnight trip. Um, and and again, the doctors have to approve that for our for our fragile patients, but it's it's a whole team event.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:41

Yeah, no, it is an amazing place. Jim actually, when he was talking, said that you really have to come here to see it, to visualize it, and and he's really true. And what is really true, but kind of along those lines, Nancy, and I appreciate your time. I know we have a limited amount of time, but what are some of the uh you guys are doing a great job here. I mean, it's amazing. You pack so much into this area, but what are some of the challenges that you guys are facing?

SPEAKER_03 1:26:06

So so space is huge. Um, and again, this facility was built many years ago, and um every patient has at least two wheelchairs. So, so when you see their rooms, and he took you in their rooms. He did, yeah. Um, so space, space is an issue, and it's an aging facility. Um, we have beautiful grounds. Yes, we are we are blessed. The Methaney family was was so generous to leave us this legacy. Um but but we have an aging facility, we absolutely need to invest in it. And and this is a Medicaid operation, so there's not a big margin here. Um so everything we do and how we do it, um it's important to look at the bottom line and and make sure that we're we're spending the right amount and um and planning. It budgetary constraints are um are are some of our limitations here. We're fortunate we have some great partners, not only here, but at our group homes. We have some community partners that actually come in and help and and they'll do a day at service. Last year, somebody painted the railings on our way to the art center. Um we have some community groups that'll do plantings at some of our group homes. And there's this great organization, the Cars Group, who every holiday comes in the Saturday before Christmas and they bring gifts for all the patients. They get a list from our social workers of the patients who don't have families or have families that that don't have means. And and they come in and they give them every Everything on their wish list and they and they throw the biggest party. Um so those community partners are really important to to help with the life enrichment activities here because you can't pay for those things off of the Medicaid stipend.

SPEAKER_07 1:28:16

Right, right, right, right. Yeah, it's it's is it is it difficult? Not difficult, but is it like promoting what you do and how you do like getting the word out? It because once people I I imagine once they connect to your mission, it's different than our we all go through hospitals, but you guys are different.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:37

It is, and and again, I think um this administration here, this leadership team here recognizes this, and we're making a conscious effort to tell our story. Everybody who comes in has to take the tour, whether you're whether you're gonna and we have a beautiful wall of all of our milestones and accomplishments. Um we've reached out to our legislative people and and we've invited them to come here, and they have come. In fact, we just recently had Assemblyman um Vincent Connie, who who just recently was elected, he came and he toured, and and this is his district, and he had never been to Nefaney, so he he toured and we invited him to speak at graduation, and and he was great. And he talked about the fact that once he saw what we did, it tugs at his heart. Um so we're telling our story more. It's part of uh as leaders of what what we do and how and how we develop relationships because we're up on a hill in an area of the state that most people don't come. Peapack Gladstone. I've I've lived in New Jersey my whole life. Um I until I worked at Mathenee, I had never been in Peapak Gladstone. It's a Bedminster. Yeah, but it it's not, you know, it's it's not a place that that you would normally come to.

SPEAKER_08 1:30:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:08

We move our uh our signature fundraising event as a smiles for Mathini. We actually moved it onto the campus here. So and and and for the last two years it's been a great event. And we and we take people through the facility, they meet our patients, um, they get to know them, yeah. Um, which is important. Yes, really important.

SPEAKER_07 1:30:32

And along those lines, final final question, Nancy. If if you could, you know, if you could talk to somebody who's actually watching this interview on the YouTube channel, what would you want them to understand? Or what would you want them to know about your mission here, and about more importantly, the residents who call this campus their home? Because like you said, they're here for decades, right? They're not three days and turning a bed over. They're this is home.

SPEAKER_03 1:30:59

This is home. And and and this is their life. Um so what I'd want people to know is is there's a great team of people that that are doing great work, God's work, um taking care of and creating, providing exceptional, exceptional medical care as well as optimal life experiences for people who have lots of challenges. Complex, medically complex disabled adults and children. And and there's a skill to that. And and the people that work here are a great team doing good, really good work. And I think that we as as care providers and leaders of this organization, we learn more than than our school actually teaches. We learn from the patients, like you can't have a bad day. Um you should be grateful for every moment that you have. And and if you can make it meaningful, and that's what I learned from the employees here, is they have a purpose, a sense of purpose, and a sense of service, and they're providing dignity and joy and memories for people. Um you know, some if they say if it's if it's rewarding, it's not work.

SPEAKER_08 1:32:35

Right.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:35

Um this is a very rewarding place. It really is.

SPEAKER_07 1:32:40

Yeah. One

How To Visit Volunteer Support

SPEAKER_07 1:32:41

of the just really quick, one of those memories I'll take from here. Then if you have a uh resident named Emma, and we were walking around, she was on a bike and she was being pushed, and she was so excited. And Melissa was talking to her, and Emma's like, Emma bike, Emma Bike, and off she went, you know, and it's just it's like around every corner there's a story.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:02

There is a story. Emma got to go surfing last summer. Okay, and so for at least a week after that surfing experience at the Jersey Shore, when you walked by and said, Hello, Emma Surfer. I'm a surf. And on Friday, Emma gets a talk to her grandma. Her grandma calls every Friday. So on Friday, Emma knows it's Friday, grandma's gonna call.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:28

Wow. That's awesome. It is, it is.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:32

But but there's 101 people here. Um yeah, and they all have a story.

SPEAKER_07 1:33:38

Last question I know I said, Do you know how many, like, and maybe you guys don't track it, but the average resident, how many years do you know did they spend here? Do you guys track that at all? It's decades, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:33:50

Well, it is, and you know, just recently we had um for miles from Methaney, um, John Elliott from Channel 2 was interviewing some of our patients. And um, and he was interviewing Josh, who lives in one of our group homes, and he just celebrated his 60th birthday, and he has been with us. Wow. Um, since he was two. Wow. So, but I don't actually have that number. We just did a whole um Methani Matters magazine on longevity. So not only the longevity of our patients and residents, but you'll find that the employees that work here uh are here 30, 40 years. Like this is their life commitment. In November, we have an employee recognition program where we celebrate the milestones. Last year, I think there were 49 employees, and and these were people that were here more than 20 years. It was amazing. Yeah, amazing. There we have some employees that have been here 30 and 40 years, and no site of retirement, because this is their this is their life work, this is their sense of purpose.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:09

It's just like a big family.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:11

It is a huge family. The huge family.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:14

So Nancy Hamstrom, President CEO, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:18

Thank you.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:20

Peter Martin for the Healthcare Facilities Network. Thanks for watching. And actually, if somebody wants to support you folks, how would how can they do that? I know it's methenia.org, right? But are there other mechanisms?

SPEAKER_03 1:35:31

So so there is a link on our homepage that that you could that we'll take you if you wanted to we'll put it right here so people can link to it.

SPEAKER_07 1:35:39

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 1:35:40

And and and again, support financial support is great. Um, but if you want to volunteer or if you want to, you know, consider a career here, or if you just want to come and learn about us and what we do, and then figure out if if there's a fit, you you absolutely can just call a main number, and um we have a volunteer coordinator who will coordinate that visit.

SPEAKER_07 1:36:06

If you're local, I would encourage it because there's nothing like nothing like walking your halls. Thank you for your time.

Closing And Guest Invitation

SPEAKER_07 1:36:15

If you want to be a guest on a future episode of the Healthcare Facilities Network, go to healthcarefacilitiesnetwork.com and let us know who you are and what you want to talk about because together we can solve this critical aging issue.