Inside John Knox Village: An In-Depth Look with Kellie Camp-Thomas
Dec 13, 2023Season 1Episode 1
Lee Berkowitz / Kellie Camp-Thomas
Kellie Camp-Thomas is the Community Engagement and Business Development Manager at John Knox Village of Florida, Inc. Kellie Develops, expands, improves, and grows all part of my business development strategy at John Knox Village. She continues to connect with hospital systems, including CEO’s, clinical directors, and physicians to expand the services at JKV to our residents.
In this episode of Elder Care Insights, host Lee Berkowitz interviews Kellie Camp-Thomas from John Knox Village, a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC). They discuss the services and amenities offered at John Knox Village, as well as the unique approach to care provided by the facility.
Kellie explains the concept of a CCRC and how residents can move in as independent individuals and age gracefully in the community, with access to various levels of care as needed.
She also highlights the wide range of activities and amenities available, including a comprehensive gym, restaurants, bars, and cultural events.
Kellie further discusses the unique features of John Knox Village, such as the Green Project, which creates a home-like environment for residents, and the use of individual medicine boxes instead of med carts. The episode concludes with a discussion on respite care and hospice services offered at John Knox Village.
The Green Project focuses on the resident's well-being.
Timestamps: 01:13 CCRC is a buy-in care community. 06:06 No med carts, personalized medicine boxes for safety. 07:40 Respite care offers flexibility for caregivers. 11:13 John Knox: 56 years of family and care. 13:59 Great resource base at John Knox Village, networking with Kellie for any questions.
Kellie Camp-Thomas is the Community Engagement and Business Development Manager at John Knox Village of Florida, Inc. Kellie Develops, expands, improves, and grows all part of my business development strategy at John Knox Village. She continues to connect with hospital systems, including CEO’s, clinical directors, and physicians to expand the services at JKV to our residents.
In this episode of Elder Care Insights, host Lee Berkowitz interviews Kellie Camp-Thomas from John Knox Village, a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC). They discuss the services and amenities offered at John Knox Village, as well as the unique approach to care provided by the facility.
Kellie explains the concept of a CCRC and how residents can move in as independent individuals and age gracefully in the community, with access to various levels of care as needed.
She also highlights the wide range of activities and amenities available, including a comprehensive gym, restaurants, bars, and cultural events.
Kellie further discusses the unique features of John Knox Village, such as the Green Project, which creates a home-like environment for residents, and the use of individual medicine boxes instead of med carts. The episode concludes with a discussion on respite care and hospice services offered at John Knox Village.
The Green Project focuses on the resident's well-being.
Timestamps: 01:13 CCRC is a buy-in care community. 06:06 No med carts, personalized medicine boxes for safety. 07:40 Respite care offers flexibility for caregivers. 11:13 John Knox: 56 years of family and care. 13:59 Great resource base at John Knox Village, networking with Kellie for any questions.
But feels that we need to provide the best services to our residents. So it's always been that foundation 56 years ago and we still live by that. I can see that when I was there on the Longest Day event, I felt very comfortable and that the employees were very happy to be there. You can tell it. Hello, everybody. Welcome to the premiere episode of The Elder Care Insights podcast presented by Welcome Back Home Care. Today we have a wonderful guest, Kelly Camp Thomas from John Knox Village, and we're going to be discussing a little bit about CCRCs and John Knox Village. So it's an honor to have you. Thank you Kelly. Thanks for having me. Lee. So let's just get started. What exactly is a CCRC? CCRC is a continuing care retirement community, which means that it is a buy in, so people buy in. You're not buying property, you're buying care. So someone will come in and they'll come in usually between 65 and 75, which is probably the best time to come in. And they come in independent, but then they age through our community So what that means is they'll come in as an independent resident and either one of our villas or one of our high rises, including our new Westlake that's opening in 2024. And some may never need it. But as you age, everybody ages differently. So you may need rehab. We have rehab. You may need long term care because you are unable to take care of yourself in your home safely. We also have an assisted living. We also provide private duty and Medicare, Home Health. And then we, of course, have 70 acres of activities and fun, including restaurants, bars, putt putt, golf, you name it. So it really is a community that allows people to age gracefully. Wow, that that sounds terrific. So this is the full continuum of care from people who are retiring all the way to people who are need more care. So towards the skilled nursing. So tell us a little bit about those younger retirees. What are the fun activities at John Knox Village? What are some of the things that some of the residents do like to do on a daily basis? Yeah, that's endless. It can start with your morning, can start with our comprehensive gym that spectacular that Marsha, who's our director, they have yoga, they have walking classes, they have personal training, state of the art equipment so you can get your workout in every day. And then in the afternoon there might be a lunch group or you can go to the aquatic center and swim. We have a pickleball court. We have transportation to exciting, interesting things, including Marlins football games, Miami Dolphin games. And then in the evening there's numerous restaurants to pick from. We have some great social bar settings, including a sports bar next to a aquatic center. And then we have a new cultural arts center that we have the best program out there. With the ballet comes the opera. We've even had famous people come and talk to our residents. So we really are just a one stop shop for aging gracefully and being active. Wow, That's amazing. That sounds great. For all the listeners out there. Check out John Knox Village. I was honored to come and take a tour, so I did get to see the cultural center. We were sponsored participants in The Longest Day, which is a great charitable event, partnered with the Alzheimer's Association, and we did get to see some great events from the local. Was it the orchestra, local opera? Yes, it was the opera. And that was such a great time. And I assume that you're going to go ahead and do it next year as well. And it goes to such a great cause, which is the Alzheimer's Association, which we were proud to be a part of. And I also got to sit down and have a great lunch there, which you treated me to, which was amazing. And all of the residents in such high spirits, everybody was so happy to be there. And it is a very wonderful place. I also got to see the rooms. Very nice. So what makes a room or what makes John Knox Village a little bit different? What do you do differently with I remember something about the medication was a little bit different at John Knox Village. You don't have those carts coming around with medications. What's that like? So we have something that only one other rehab in long term care building in the entire state of Florida has. And that's called the Green project. Okay. So what we do is, is the the process and the belief is, is that we have small homes. So on each floor there's two small homes. And when you walk in, there is all 12 are private rooms circling, as you do in your own home, your kitchen, your family room, your eating area. The kitchen is there. They prepare the food in the home. You get that sense of smell, which, you know, all the senses need to be triggered to allow for people to continue to live healthy if they're in the rehab home, to get better, to get back home. And then when you are talking about is we don't believe in med cards. So in the Greenhouse Project, what it is, is that would you do a med cart in your own home? No. And it's also a great safety precaution for us. So every single resident out or we call guests that comes in for rehab has their own medicine box that secured and locked in their room on the wall and their medicine, and only their medicine is in that so that when it needs to be administered, the nurse is able to get access to it and provide it to that person. And so it alleviates that cart in the way that can cause if someone's in a wheelchair walker to get tripped on, it prevents any mistake with medication. And once again, it's very home feel is what's important. And having a med cart is not a home feel. Exactly. And it did feel very homey when I was there. I got to meet some of the residents and toured the facility and it's just a wonderful place. You do feel like you're at home. You don't feel like you're at the facility, which is more of a community feel. It doesn't feel like a nursing home. It feels like a community. So for some of those folks that I've had, some clients that they feel bad because they're going away on a cruise and they want the 24 hour type of care. Do you offer respite services for some of your clients? Can can a client come in there or a guest come in there for a period of one day or one week or just two weeks? Absolutely. So we do provide respeot and it's a great opportunity for someone that is a caretaker, whether you need to go visit your daughter, but your spouse is unable to travel or you want to take a little girl's weekend, but your husband is dependent on care. And we do work and we've worked with you closely with private duty that do call us and say we have a client. They need to come in for respite. And the other great thing is it can be, you know, one or two days, it can be a week, it can be three weeks. So you pay daily. But the other thing is, is that we welcome those private aides to also come in which many times the family will continue to pay and have that person come in for consistency. So we always welcome that as well. So we welcome any respite and anyone can call John Knox and ask for me and I will be more than happy to give it to her and walk people through how our respect program works and how they can go away and know that their loved one safe. Well, that sounds terrific. And so you also I didn't get into see the Trust Bridge facility, but can you tell us a little bit about hospice care? Do you have a building designated just for hospice care on the campus? We have what Trowbridge does is they rent ten rooms from us in our seaside Cove building, but we can also provide the hospice in any of the private rooms at the Woodlands or in the other rooms at Seaside Cove. So Trust Bridge does rent ten beds that they manage. And then we can also, if it's Vitus, if it's if it's another hospice and they need respite for their loved ones, we can do that and we can provide hospice for someone that's in our long term care and the service goes to them in their room. Wow. This this really is a full spectrum of care. We're talking about folks that are just retiring all the way to the hospice end, which is not end of life care, folks. And we will have a future guest on speaking about hospice and some of those misconceptions. But this this is just so amazing. So where's the best place to reach you? How do we find you? It sounds like we can take tours in case some folks are interested. Absolutely. The best way is to call either my store, which is 9544940626, or you simply call John Knox number. And if you ask for me, they will send you to the right place. Our campus, mind you, is 70 acres, so it's quite large and we have a lot of different departments. So anyone is more than willing to help if anyone has any questions. And these tours are fun. So if you're interested and you're not sure you know what which place to go, you probably should really call John Knox Village because we get to go on a golf cart, we get to see the facilities, we'll have lunch together, you'll get to see the place in action. So I highly recommend booking a tour with Kelly. She does great. And it's just a very, very great place to be at John Knox Village in Pompano Beach, Florida. And it's been an honor to have Kelly on the podcast. Thanks. That's what I have so far. Yeah, I really appreciate it. how how exactly did John Knox start? When did it start? Who is the founder of John Knox Village? Well, we are now this year celebrating our 56th anniversary. It started in 1967. It was a church based and we have from 1967 to today, have we now over a thousand residents. So we are in 70 acres. It was originally, if anyone's been on the campus or seen it, we have these cute little villas that are little homes. They're absolutely adorable. And those were the first homes. And then we have a two story independent. So those were the two that were on the property. Prior to that, it was a pig farm, all that land. So when people ask, you know, is moving to John Knox and making that down payment worth it, on top of all the activities and all of the the support that you will get at every level of care, we've been here for 56 years, solid continuing care, retirement community and you couldn't the other part that I always go back to, which has been from the foundation that John Knox started, was that sense of family that exists there. When you walk on campus, we have roughly 800 employees. So think about that. If we have a thousand residents, we have 800 employees. That tells you how much John Knox is invested in the community from an employment standpoint, but feels that we need to provide the best services to our residents so it's always been that foundation 56 years ago and we still live by that. I can see that when I was there on the Longest Day event, I felt very comfortable and that the employees were very happy to be there. You can tell it just in their eyes. They were happy to be part of this great organization. So you treat your employees well, treat your staff well and your caregivers. So that's very important. Happy staff means happy clients or happy guests. So that's super important that we have that same philosophy with. Welcome Back Home Care. What's the future of John Knox like? I see some construction going on and wow, the future is bright, that's for sure. No pun intended on the song, but we are very excited to have our West Lake high rise going up and anyone that drives down the turnpike sees that huge building. We are finishing up and being ready and February 1st to move people in. And so that will add an additional 2 to 250 new residents on campus. So that is going to add a huge, huge opportunity for more growth. So that's our future and we're always looking to improve our our health care. So I'm continuing to work as the business development manager and encourage more and more physicians to credential with us to round out our long term care. But we also have a health care building that is right next door. It's off the off the gated campus, but it's part of ours. And we are getting more and more physicians to rent from that space. So it's beneficial for them there in Pompano. And then also they can service our residents. So I'm really excited about that and getting more and more specialty physicians in to provide care to our residents. That sounds great. So you're really building up the resource base at John Knox Village. You have lots of doctors nearby, lots of nurse practitioners and people that are in health care and that that's very good. And Kelly is a very resourceful people. We we do networking marketing together. So if you have any questions, feel free to call Kelly. Her number will be listed on the video and that would be so great just to contact with any sort of questions. It doesn't have to be about assisted living or a CCRC. Just call Kelly. She's very resourceful. She'll help you in any way, anything you need. I know Kelly, and she's very welcome to help and it has been a pleasure knowing you. And we've always helped each other through through the years. Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me, Lee. I can't thank you enough. Thank you. You're very welcome.