Sagepoint Senior Services Foundation Welcomes Community Leaders to Foundation Board of Directors

As a respected nonprofit organization in service to the people of Southern Maryland, Sagepoint holds it in the highest importance for our top leadership to be pillars of the community who demonstrate our shared commitment to our fellow citizens on a daily basis. This is why we are particularly proud to welcome three new members to our Foundation Board of Directors.

Charles County Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Augustus “Gus” Proctor is a Charles County native who has shown his dedication to county residents throughout his career and personal life. Sgt. Proctor has been with the Sheriff’s Office for 29 years, and today serves as the Southern Region Coordinator and Administrative Sergeant for Districts 1 and 2. He volunteers with Lifestyles of Maryland, Special Olympics Maryland and also serves on the Board of the Spring Dell Center. He and his wife have three children and two grandchildren.

Shirley Hancock retired from the Charles County Department of Health after 38 years as a nurse in several areas of public health, including maternity, pediatrics, communicable diseases and geriatric care. As part of her duties at the Health Department, she served as an Acting Director of Health Partners in Waldorf, and upon retirement was the Supervisor of the Colorectal and Prostate Cancer Programs. Nurse Hancock volunteered for over 15 years for the University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center Foundation Board of Directors. She served many roles for the Foundation such as a term as the Board Chairperson, Chairperson for the gala event for many years and a member of the Capital Campaign Committee. Shirley lives in La Plata and is married with two children and two grandchildren.

Ann Page brings a 44-year career in health care to her position with Sagepoint. Prior to her retirement in 2019, she served with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Quality and Outcomes Division in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. She has been a past Director of the Health Care Delivery and Management Administration of the D.C. Department of Health Care Finance. Her career has also included health policy leadership positions with the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, the Maryland Governor’s Office, the National Committee for Quality Assurance and the nationwide Institute for Health Policy Solutions in Washington, D.C. Ms. Page is the author of dozens of health care policy publications.

These new Board members join Sagepoint’s already exemplary Board leadership. The Board of Directors for 2021 is as follows:

New 2021 Officers:

Christine Parker, Chair
Sue Greer, Chair Elect
Craig Renner, Secretary
Terry Weaver, Treasurer
Board Members:
Sally Jameson, Immediate Past Chair
Carolyn Core, SSLS Board Chair
Andrea Dwyer, President and CEO
Scot Ebron
Shirley Hancock
Evie Hungerford
Ann Page
Augustus “Gus” Proctor
Joyce Riggs, Foundation President

Multiple Awards of Excellence Show Sagepoint’s Commitment to Our Clients and Their Families

1 Reply

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in full in March 2020, countless segments of society have obviously felt its effects. One segment, in particular, is the senior community, as well as their families and the people who serve them.

In our long-standing tradition of innovative commitment to the community, the staff and leadership of Sagepoint Senior Living Services have risen to this past year’s unique and unprecedented challenges, and we are proud to say that not only have our clients and their guardians recognized our efforts, so have third-party sources who annually evaluate standards for senior care in the United States.

For the second year in a row, US News and World Report named Sagepoint a Best Nursing Home. This year it is especially noteworthy to again be included in this top tier, given the exceptional care requirements that the ongoing pandemic has brought to Sagepoint and our senior care peers across the country.

Two respected publications also named Sagepoint as a Best Nursing Home for 2020, one regional and one national. The readership of Southern Maryland News voted to rate leading senior care providers in Southern Maryland, and Sagepoint won Readers’ Choice. Newsweek also surveyed its readers and subscribers, placing us in the Top 5 Best Nursing Homes for 2020 on a national level.

Everyone at Sagepoint is honored to have these awards bestowed upon us, and we pledge to provide the same exemplary standards of service in 2021 and for years to come.

Sagepoint Home Care Services — Where Peace of Mind Lives

1 Reply

The comforts of home are universal at any stage in life, so it is certainly understandable that most older adults wish to stay at home as long as possible to age in place. Remaining at home permits a full life lived with dignity, respect and purpose.

Many experts, families and older people themselves firmly believe that living at home for as long as possible actually keeps people more physically active and mentally engaged later in life. At Sagepoint Senior Living Services, we absolutely agree.

Sagepoint’s experience in elder care over more than 40 years has given us unique insights and expertise in providing home care living assistance services to seniors and their families throughout Southern Maryland.

For many of our Home Care clients, whether arranged directly by them or by their families, care services are simple and straightforward. They may involve home visits a few days a week or daily to assist with regular activities like light housekeeping, laundry, light meal preparation, or escort services to appointments and regular errands. Sagepoint’s Home Care visits also provide companionship for older people who aren’t able to visit with family and friends as often as they’d like. And let’s be honest…in the era of COVID-19, a little friendly human interaction is something everyone appreciates, no matter what their age.

For some Sagepoint Home Care clients, of course, daily needs are more complex. Depending on their level of ability, clients may need help with feeding, bathing and personal care, dressing or toileting. Comprehensive meal planning and preparation may be required, along with medication reminders and administration. Needs assessments by Registered Nurse (RN) Case Managers ensure the proper level of involvement, and personal care services are performed by trained caregivers.

The benefits of Sagepoint Home Care Services are focused not only on the elder person in their home, but on their caregiving family and friends, as well. Daily life simply sometimes beckons, and proper in-home care gives family members guilt-free assurance that their loved ones’ needs are attended to when they simply can’t be there. Sagepoint Home care is likewise reassuring for the elderly care recipients, knowing that their daily care needs won’t necessarily overburden others.

For more information on Sagepoint’s Home Care Services, including details about qualifying for financial assistance, please visit our website here.

Supporting Sagepoint is a Gift to Our Patients And Their Loved Ones

2 Replies

As the year winds down, we’re asking our supporters to make a donation to support our year-end fundraising campaign, “So Many Ways to Give.” And we want you to know who you’re supporting — from the difference it makes in the lives of our residents to the peace of mind it brings to their families.

At Sagepoint, there is no higher compliment than when a resident or their loved one recognizes the effort and compassion that our staff brings to work each day. Our team gives so much of themselves to care for our seniors, and it is truly affirming to hear the simple words, “Thank you.”

There is also something special about a handwritten note, like the one we received from Victoria S. Here is what she wrote:

To all the employees at Sagepoint,

I wanted to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the love and patience you have shown not only for my brother but also for all the other residents at Sagepoint.

I had the privilege to visit you guys in October of 2019 and I had the chance to observe the amount of care and love as well as the amount of dedication and hard work you guys put into Sagepoint to make it an excellent place to stay.

I am writing this letter to show my appreciation. Thank you.

Our team is so thankful for all of our residents and the family members who entrust us with their care. Each one gets our full attention and our best efforts to ensure their health and safety each day. But, as you know, the pandemic has made that task more difficult and more expensive.

We rely on the support of our community to be able to provide the highest levels of care. Will you help?

Make a Gift Today.

Sagepoint Claims Local and National Titles for Excellence in Senior Care

2 Replies

Sagepoint Awarded for Excellent Senior Care

Each day our staff at Sagepoint has one goal: provide the best care possible for our seniors. It’s our biggest honor and greatest responsibility.

Throughout the challenges of the past year, our mission for exceptional senior care remains unchanged. In fact, these unusual circumstances have only further amplified our drive to ensure the health and safety of our seniors.

This is what keeps Sagepoint moving forward each day. Our dedication is unwavering — and others have taken notice.

We’re proud to be recognized by independent sources again this year for our ongoing commitment to the highest standards of senior care. From national news organizations to local reader’s choice awards, we’re honored to be at the top of these lists and representing excellence in senior care for Southern Maryland.

For the second year in a row, US News and World Report named Sagepoint a Best Nursing Home. This year it is especially noteworthy to again be included in this top tier, a high standard that we always work to hold ourselves to.

More good news came from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), who awarded Sagepoint a rare 5-star rating. In fact, we were the only nonprofit senior care facility in Charles County to earn and maintain this perfect rating.

Two additional publications also announced Sagepoint as a Best Nursing Home this year. The Maryland Independent allowed their readers to vote on their favorite senior care — and Sagepoint won Reader’s Choice. Newsweek also followed suit, placing us in the Top 5 Best Nursing Homes for 2020.

With so many accolades to close out the year, our Sagepoint family is celebrating this success and already looking ahead to maintain our reputation of remarkable senior care in Southern Maryland for years to come.

There Are So Many Ways to Give — And Every Donation Makes a Difference

1 Reply

It’s times like these that showcase exactly how much our Sagepoint family means to us. Our supporters have stepped up to the plate over the past few months to help us continue to provide safety, health and happiness to our seniors.

We couldn’t be more grateful. Sagepoint relies on the continued generosity of our donors — which is why we’re making it easier than ever to give.

For your safety and convenience, all donations can now be made digitally. On our website, you can reach a quick, easy and secure platform where you can make your contribution.

While you’re there, you’ll also see an option to make your gift recurring. This is the perfect solution for our regular donors, and you can specify how much you’d like to donate and at what interval the contribution will be made.

So you can give every few weeks or months without the extra work — and still be certain that you’re making a difference in the lives of our Sagepoint seniors.

And your donation is helping in more ways than one. Through your support, you’ll be bringing joy, hope and love into the daily lives of our seniors.

From securing critical supplies and materials like PPE and HEPA filtration systems to scholarship funds for dedicated senior care workers, you’ll be touching the lives of many in our Southern Maryland community.

Our end-of-year giving campaign has just begun, and it’s just one more way to support Sagepoint and our seniors. Will you join us in our efforts with a qualified charitable contribution today? It would make a world of a difference.

Make a Gift Today

Good Times for a Great Cause at the Inaugural Sagepoint Golf Tournament

1 Reply

The inaugural Sagepoint Foundation Golf Tournament was a rousing success.

Dozens of golfers joined us at Swan Point Yacht & Country Club on September 23 to spend a fun day on the links, enjoying the beautiful course and giving back to support senior care initiatives.

In a year full of trying circumstances for people everywhere, the day represented an opportunity to come together and enjoy good company as well as some friendly competition on the course.

We want to extend our sincere thanks to all the participants for joining us and for following the social distancing protocols that were in place everywhere that day. We also want to thank our amazing sponsors, including Dennis Anderson Construction, Specified Electrical Systems, Community Bank of the Chesapeake, CRGA Design, Colonial Liquors and Chick-fil-A.

All net proceeds raised during the golf tournament will benefit the Foundation’s education programs, such as the Geriatric Nursing Assistant (GNA) training program and the pathways from GNA to Nurse program.

The GNA training program funds individuals seeking to become certified GNAs and is offered to community members at no charge. The pathways from GNA to nursing program helps fund tuition for current Sagepoint GNA’s to become nurses.

Every day, we provide a full spectrum of services for our patients, including Adult Day Services, Rehabilitation, Assisted Living, Long-Term Care, Memory Care and Home Care.

Programs like these enable us to continue providing high-quality senior care here in Southern Maryland. By increasing access to education, we provide and advance the careers of individuals passionate about caring for our seniors, regardless of socioeconomic status.

U.S. News & World Report Names Sagepoint Senior Living in Southern Maryland as a “Best Nursing Home” in the Nation

1 Reply

“We are extremely proud of this national honor, especially since it so closely follows our being recognized by Newsweek magazine as a top nursing home in Maryland”

LA PLATA, MD (Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2020) – Sagepoint Senior Living Services in La Plata is among the 21% of U.S. skilled nursing facilities that have been recognized as a “Best Nursing Home for 2020-21” by U.S. News & World Report.

Sagepoint earned Best Nursing Homes status by achieving a rating of “High Performing,” the publication’s highest possible rating, for both long-term care and short-term rehabilitation facilities. U.S. News & World Report gives the designation of Best Nursing Home only to those homes that satisfy U.S. News’s assessment of the appropriate use of key services and consistent performance measures.

“We are extremely proud of this national honor, especially since it so closely follows our being recognized by Newsweek magazine as a top nursing home in Maryland,” said Sagepoint CEO Andrea Dwyer. “But what I am most proud of are our dedicated staff members who made this latest ‘Best Nursing Home’ designation possible.

“Just as we’ve said about our previous Newsweek honor, administrators didn’t make this positive recognition happen,” Dwyer added. “Our amazing staff did.”

Now in its 11th year, the U.S. News & World Report Best Nursing Homes ratings and profiles offer comprehensive information about care, safety, health inspections, staffing and more for nearly all of the nation’s 15,000-plus nursing homes. The Best Nursing Homes ratings reflect U.S. News’ exclusive analysis of publicly available data, using a methodology defined by U.S. News & World Report, that evaluates factors that it has determined most greatly impact patient and resident care, safety, and outcomes.

This year, to accompany the new ratings, nursing home profile pages were updated to include a patient safety summary that reflects COVID-19 data alongside other measurements of safety and related advice on choosing a home or facility amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

“U.S. News strives to provide access to information that allows consumers to make educated decisions on all types of care,” said Ben Harder, managing editor and chief of health analysis at U.S. News. “Updating the profiles to include a patient safety summary that highlights COVID-19 data paired with other measures of care arms families, caregivers and patients with the information needed to make a decision that keeps safety at the highest priority.”

The Best Nursing Home finder features ratings on both long-term and short-term care. The long-term care rating aims to provide prospective residents who need help with daily activities, and their families, with analysis and information regarding the quality of care provided by nursing homes.

The rating includes data on staffing, success in preventing ER visits, and pneumonia vaccination rates, among other metrics.

About Sagepoint Senior Living Services

Operating originally as Charles County Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Sagepoint has provided the region with high quality senior care since 1976. All of the services offered by then-CCNRC were combined and re-branded under a single new name, Sagepoint Senior Living Services, in 2015.

About U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report is the global leader in quality rankings that empower people to make better, more informed decisions about important issues affecting their lives. A digital news and information company focused on Education, Health, Money, Travel, Cars and News USNews.com provides consumer advice, rankings and analysis to serve people making complex decisions throughout all stages of life. More than 40 million people visit USNews.com each month for research and guidance. Founded in 1933, U.S. News is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

###

Sagepoint Senior Living Services Named by Newsweek as one of Top Two Nursing Homes in Maryland

2 Replies

“We are extremely proud of this statewide recognition, especially since the Newsweek criteria includes our response to COVID-19”

LA PLATA, MD (Friday, Oct. 2, 2020) – Sagepoint Senior Living Services has been named by Newsweek magazine as one of the top two nursing home facilities in Maryland, CEO Andrea Dwyer announced today. The rankings were featured in the print edition of the prestigious national publication today (Friday, Oct. 2, 2020) in a special section entitled “America’s Best Nursing Homes 2021.”

Sagepoint was ranked by Newsweek as the best nursing home in the region, second only statewide to Crofton Care and Rehabilitation Center in Anne Arundel County: https://www.newsweek.com/americas-best-nursing-homes-2021/maryland

In making the announcement, Newsweek said its nursing home rankings are based on performance data, peer recommendations, and facililities’ handling of the COVID-19 threat between May 24, 2020 and August 2, 2020. Newsweek partnered with respected global data research firm Statista to establish the national and state-by-state rankings.

“In building these rankings, Statista and Newsweek took extensive, multiple measures to address the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak,” today’s announcement said. “Our objective: to recognize the facilities which have put in place the best possible responses and protocols.”

Dwyer attributed today’s Newsweek ranking to the hard work and dedication of Sagepoint staff.

“Or course we are extremely proud of this statewide ranking, especially since the Newsweek criteria includes our response to COVID-19 at the height of the outbreak,” Dwyer said. “But I am most proud of our Sagepoint staff members who left their own families at home every day, working long hours and putting their own health at risk, to provide quality care for our residents.

“That tells you the type of dedicated, selfless women and men we have working at Sagepoint,” she added. “I don’t know where we’d be without them. Administrators didn’t do this incredible work. Our staff did.”

On March 30, a Sagepoint resident who was being treated at an area hospital was diagnosed with COVID-19. Sagepoint immediately notified families and staff in a message posted on the facility’s public website and also instituted aggressive measures to contain the virus.

Dwyer said Sagepoint voluntarily then tested every resident in its nursing home facility for COVID-19, after receiving Maryland Department of Health approval to test, regardless of whether residents had symptoms or not, a best practice known as universal testing.

Newsweek noted that the data analysis it used for its 2021 rankings put a big emphasis on evaluating the official COVID-19 dataset from the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The Nursing Home COVID-19 data is reported directly to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), and includes Resident Impact, Facility Capacity, Staff & Personnel and Supplies & Personal Protective Equipment, as well as Ventilator Capacity.

###

Sagepoint Creates New Page to Consolidate COVID-19 Updates

3 Replies

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to spread throughout the United States, Sagepoint is monitoring the situation closely, and our response is evolving as new information becomes available.

Understandably, our patients and family members have questions about what it means for them and the steps Sagepoint is taking to protect all those we care for and all those who provide that care. So we’ve created a dedicated page on our website where any updates and information are posted as soon as possible.

Please go to our COVID-19 Updates page –– linked below –– for the most up-to-date information. We encourage you to bookmark the page so you can easily access it in the days ahead.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate this ever-changing situation.

See COVID-19 Updates