RINGWOOD, N.J. — The Province’s skilled nursing facility has been recognized for its quality service with the 2014 Bronze AHCA/NCAL National Quality Award from the American Health Care Association. The recommendation for the award was confirmed after completion of a survey compliance status, according to the AHCA.
“We were very pleased to receive this recognition,” said A. Francis Soucy, OFM, director and guardian of Holy Name Friary. “The award is based on care of residents and on meeting state regulations. It is the first time that we have been recognized by this organization,” which, Francis said, represents both nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
Over the last few years, Holy Name Friary, the Province’s 29-bed skilled nursing care facility in northwest New Jersey, has been recognized several times for its excellent services.
In March 2009, U.S. News & World Report cited the facility as one of America’s best nursing homes. In December 2008, the healthcare facility received a five-star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
The staff is trained, said Francis, to both understand and embrace the Franciscan spirituality. The friary parallels other Franciscan houses, with daily Mass and Liturgy of the Hours. The friars see Holy Name Friary as more like a home than a facility, never calling it a nursing home, according to Francis. Unlike other elder-care facilities, this friary is considered their home, and nurses and staff members are asked into a friar’s home to care for him, he said in an HNP Today story titled “Ringwood Residents Grateful for Home, Family.” The state of New Jersey has consistently given this facility the highest rating with no deficiencies, he added.
Francis has served as director of the long-term care facility since it opened in 1989. When Francis leaves Holy Name later this summer for his new assignment in St. Petersburg, Fla., Richard McFeely, OFM, will take over as guardian.
— Jocelyn Thomas is director of communications for Holy Name Province.