Hoeger House

A New Place for Bread of Life to Worship

A Report on Hoeger House

By Michael Yarbrough

On Tuesday afternoon, January 15, 2008, I drove to Olathe to visit Hoeger House, a small rehab hospital that has a relationship to the Lutheran Church. The hospital is just south of Olathe Medical Center at exit 215 off of I-35.

It is a new (one year old), beautifully decorated, 17-room hospital that is spacious and light-filled. Patients come there as a transition from hospital to home, usually staying no more than three or four weeks.

Bread of Life Christian Church has been invited to come and worship in the building on Sunday mornings with the understanding that their patients and visitors would be invited to worship with us. We would need to be leaving the sunroom/dining room area before 11:30, so that they might serve their patients lunch, but as I talked to the woman who has invited us, every question I asked was answered and everything that I thought might be an obstacle was quickly removed:

There is no rental fee.
We can begin worshipping in their sunroom as soon as we are ready to come.
There is storage space for two suitcases of children’s toys, communion grape juice and our hymnals (in fact, they cleared the space while I was there!).
There is a keyboard in the sunroom that we can use for our worship services.
Our communion and the open, inclusive table in worship each Sunday are welcomed.
If we grow, we are encouraged to move into one of two larger rooms.
There are two possible places available for children’s church (we choose which is best for our purposes).
The staff I met was friendly, helpful, and encouraging.
They understand that, if we come, we would like to stay for a long time.
They have plenty of parking.
They welcome the possibility of our worshipping there on Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, and Christmas Eve evenings!
They would be glad to put our worship services on their Hoeger House activity calendar and notify their patients of the services when they are admitted.
When I mentioned that we have coffee and treats after worship, the staff person suggested that we come and set things up, and knock on doors and invite the patients to come down and fellowship with us from 9:30-10:00 before worship!

I have been praying about where God might lead us (and I hope you have too) and, while I was there, it felt like God was saying, “Well – you asked for an answer. What more can I say?” One staff member I met even said, “Your coming here would be an answer to my prayers.”

Another said, “Oh boy! I hope you are coming. Just last Sunday, two of our patients got all ‘gussied’ up on Sunday morning and then asked where the church service was. You should have seen the disappointment on their faces when I said that there wasn’t one here.”

As I drove home from my visit, I felt very welcomed by those who work at the Hoeger House. They WANT us – now – or as soon as we want to come! I also felt that this could truly be another way we serve the greater community by providing a meaningful worship experience.

I ask you to be in prayer about this possible place for Bread of Life, and then to carefully listen to what God’s Holy Spirit is telling us.

Yours in Christ’s service,

(Note: Bread of Life Christian Church began holding Sunday Worship Services at Hoeger House on February 3, 2008.)

Hoeger House Serves Rehabilitation Niche
A Need for Short-term Rehabilitation Fulfilled

Hoeger House Serves Rehabilitation Niche
Hoeger House
20911 West 153rd Street
Olathe, Kansas 66061

A joint project of the Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society and the Olathe Medical Center, the Hoeger House is set up specifically for rehabilitative stays and offers therapy designed to improve independent living skills. It is a great new resource for people recovering from stroke, surgery, or illness and who need intensive therapy before returning home. Until now, such therapy has been offered primarily in skilled nursing homes or rehabilitation hospitals.

The facility offers 17 spacious bedrooms, each with a private bathroom with a shower and a sink. The rooms all have state-of-the-art furnishings and equipment. Patients can be given therapy anywhere in the building as they need it.

The therapy gym is very accessible for all patients. The building also has a living room, family room, kitchen, dining room, fireplace, and a spa with a whirlpool tub. It was meant to provide all the amenities of home and be very comfortable. The center of the building houses a therapy gym, so it is very accessible for all patients.

Hoeger House is licensed as a nursing home, but has a residential look. Therapists use this home-like environment to help patients of all ages practice taking showers, preparing food, and getting in and out of a chair. The Hoeger House has a staff of about 20, a very close knit group which operates like a family with everyone pitching in to do whatever needs to be done.

Culture change was a big part of the new design, making it completely different from any other rehab setting in the Kansas City metro area. The staff also wanted it to feel like home, since the patients will be returning home. That makes the transition much easier. During an interview, some of the patients were singing praises of the comfortable design, and said it would be hard to go home.

Now the patients have church services right in Hoeger House
provided by the congregation of Bread of Life Christian Church.

(CLICK on the 2 small pictures for enlarged views)

Construction of the Hoeger House began in October 2005. Just a year later, the brand new Hoeger House took its first patients on October 11, 2006 and received its license for Medicare on October 20, 2006. On October 26, there were six patients in the building. Primarily the patients are elders ages 65-85, but the Hoeger House will take persons of all ages. They might take a patient who had a knee replacement or an early stroke. Since it is a short-term option, the patients are individuals who will go back to live in an apartment, home or assisted living. If they require long-term care, they go directly to the Center, so they do not have to be moved again.

Hoeger House is located on the Olathe Medical Center campus which also houses the Olathe Good Samaritan Center, a 140-bed skilled nursing center; Good Samaritan Towers and College Way Village Apartments, 172 HUD apartments for seniors and those with disabilities; and Cedar Lake Village, 102 senior housing and 36 assisted living apartments. This property is owned by Cedar Lake Village, Inc., which is a partnership of the Good Samaritan Society and the Olathe Medical Center.