An aerial view of the Clearview facility in Juneau.
First in a series
JUNEAU — Chances are you don’t know a whole lot about Clearview Long-term Care and Rehabilitation.
Clearview staff, under the direction of administrator Jane Hooper, quietly goes about the business of providing a wide-range of specialized treatment seldom found anywhere else in the state. But the spotlight has recently been cast on Clearview, located just north of Juneau on Highway 26, with talk of constructing a new $43 to $45 million building to house the county-run facility.
Before delving into details of tentative building and financial plans, however, it’s important to take a step back and explore what Clearview provides for Dodge, and other counties.
“It’s difficult for everyone to get their arms around what makes Clearview unique,” said Dodge County administrator Jim Mielke. “It’s really the specialized care and programs that set us apart.”
One common misconception about Clearview is that it’s a typical county home that provides geriatric care to an aging population. While Clearview does currently provide geriatric care for about 70 residents, that’s merely one of the facility’s programs.
Hooper points out that other specialized programs provide much-needed care to residents of Dodge, and neighboring counties, at a fraction of the cost of comparable state-run facilities.
Jim Mielke explained that, according to estimates, the cost for just one individual on medical assistance to receive a year of specialized inpatient care at a state facility could cost a county as much as $328,000. At Clearview the cost could be as low as one-third of that amount.
One specialized program, the Clearview Brain Injury Center, is one of only three programs in the state that provides extended rehabilitation to victims of brain trauma. After initial acute hospital treatment, individuals with brain injuries often need extensive physical, pathological, vocational and social rehabilitation in order to transition back into their home communities. To meet that end, the CBIC team of medical experts draft personalized rehabilitation plans for the center’s 30 patients.
“It’s very intense rehab, six days a week,” Jane Hooper said. Typical patient rehabilitation plans span anywhere from six months to a year.
Hooper said the CBIC provides the same quality care for residents of Dodge, and surrounding counties, at a fraction of state facilities’ cost. Clearview also operates a four-person group home that enables people who are recovering from a brain injury to live in a monitored, community-integrated setting.
“(The CBIC) is just another program that makes Clearview unique in the services that are provided,” Mielke said.
Another of Clearview’s specialized care programs, its14-bed behavioral health unit, provides care for people suffering from mental health issues.
“Those folks come in and stay with us for a period of time for rehab and they go home, back into the community,” Hooper said.
Also, the specialized care unit offered at Clearview provides individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, or other forms of dementia, complete care as they transition through phases of the illness.
“We handle the whole dementia process, which makes us so much different than all the other facilities. Once they get to a certain point, they may call us and say ‘could you handle this person at this point in time;’” Hooper said.
Clearview also offers Medicare rehabilitation. Individuals who undergo procedures — knee replacement surgery for example — can reserve a stay for inpatient rehab before returning to their homes.
Clearview’s behavioral health unit also has 14 beds to care for people suffering from mental health issues.
“Those folks come in and stay with us for a period of time for rehab and they go home, back into the community,” Hooper said.
Also, Clearview’s Trailview Adult Family Home provides supervision, health monitoring, vocational development and other daily amenities for people with developmental disabilities.
Clearview’s specialized programs currently serve individuals from Dodge, and 19 surrounding counties. These specialized programs have allowed Clearview to tap additional sources of revenue to reduce its burden on the tax levy, however, devising a payment structure that reimburses Dodge County for the care it provides for out-of-county patients seems crucial to the proposed facility’s financial sustainability.