Business Spotlight: The Lutheran Home & Harwood Place

Whenever Scott McFadden gets down about the state of health care for the aging, he takes a walk.

"We have four floors," explained McFadden, president and CEO of The Lutheran Home & Harwood Place in Wauwatosa. "So, I'll just go up to the fourth floor and spiral the building. I'll walk through all the floors. And, by the time I'm done, I'll be in a great mood."

It's a feeling McFadden carries with him whenever he considers the future the two facilities, which began in 1906 as the Altenheim, German for "old people's home."

"It wasn't even 75th and North Avenue then. It was a dirt road out in a farmer's field."

That was appropriate, actually, considering the Altenheim was a retirement farm for Missouri Synod Lutheran teachers and clergy, many only around 60 years old.

Today, with both a child day care center and a nursing home at the Lutheran Home, the resident age has a bit wider range.

"We have a full continuum from six weeks old up to 111 years old, almost 112," McFadden said.

And that's just at the Lutheran Home, a 250,000-square-foot building lovingly known as "the fortress," thanks to its utilitarian 1950s-inspired design.

"It is a bit of a monstrosity," McFadden admitted.

But it's home to nearly 90 children each day, with room for nearly 30 more, as well as a 35-person adult day care, which includes a program for those dealing with early dementia; 40 memory care rooms, assisted living spaces reserved specifically for patients dealing with memory issues caused by everything from stroke to Alzheimer's disease; and 187 skilled nursing beds, what many people think of as traditional nursing home spaces.

Nearly a mile and a half away, at 8220 Harwood Place, off Harwood Avenue, 0the campus is home to a 173-unit apartment complex, a mostly independent living facility, with about 30 suites for assisted living, known as Harwood Place since it opened in 1990.

"I adore what I'm doing. The work that we do is really important. And the people that we're serving really need our help," McFadden said. "Our residents were not planning to live to be 111 or 100 or even 90 years old. They planned to live until they were 70. Their money runs out, and where do they go? We do a ton of charity care every year."

In fact, of the 135 long-term residents on campus, an estimated 90 are on Medicaid, which means the Lutheran Home loses $100 to $125 per day per resident, McFadden said.

Which might be why McFadden takes so many walks.

"We're the lowest on the food chain when it comes to health care. We're definitely in a crisis. But, for me, that makes it kind of exciting because somebody has to figure out how to do this. So, rather than complaining about it, we say, 'How can we do everything we do better? And how can we teach other people how to do it, too?'"

For The Lutheran Home, that's meant everything from adding on-campus shuttle service, as well as transportation for residents' off-site appointments, a service that includes heated blankets to stave off the winter chill, to moving toward a home cooking model with ingredients bought locally and in a season, a change that has actually saved money, McFadden said.

JUST THE FACTS

BUSINESS: The Lutheran Home & Harwood Place, 7500 W. North Ave.

WEB:www.thelutheranhome.org

PHONE: (414) 258-6170

INCORPORATED: 1906

TYPE OF BUSINESS: non-profit

PEARLS OF WISDOM: "If we filled up our building with children and dogs, we definitely would be able to raise the money we need. But it's hard to fundraise for seniors. We just don't want to face reality."