Centre Care Celebrates 1st Anniversary of New College Township Facility

Centre Care recently celebrated the first anniversary of its new skilled nursing facility in College Township.

Residents and staff enjoyed the milestone on Saturday with a celebration that included music, food trucks and classic cars.

Centre Care Rehabilitation and Wellness Services opened the doors of the new $45 million facility in March 2021 after five years of planning and a year and a half of construction.

The “home for the county,” replaced the former Centre Crest in Bellefonte.

Plans for the new facility were first announced in 2017 by the nonprofit Centre Care board, which took over operations of Centre Crest from the county in 2013. With an aging building that would require exorbitantly expensive improvements to meet state codes, and with no room to expand, the board decided after 20 months of strategic planning that a new “home for the county” would be needed.

“We all made a commitment that we had to find a way to build a replacement facility, not only for the residents…but for the future of Centre County,” board member Larry Bickford, who was a county administrator at the time of Centre Crest’s last addition and renovation in the early 1990s, said last year. “We consider this the county’s home. That’s what we call it. We take people from all over the county of any financial ability. It’s the commitment we made to not only the current but future residents that this is the place for you if you need it despite your financial conditions.”

Centre Care is the largest facility licensed to provide Medicaid care in Centre County.

Each resident room is about 100 square feet larger than at Centre Crest and offers an entry hallway to provide more privacy. The number of private rooms increases from four to 66.  Each resident has a television and, except in memory care, their own phone line, which are new additions from the former location.

The facility has a new dialysis unit on site and a high-acuity unit, distinguishing it from other facilities in the county.

About twice the size of Centre Crest, the new facility has amenities such as a large multi-purpose room, bistro and chapel. It offers four gardens and outdoor courtyards, including one just outside the therapy gym that offers space for outdoor therapy. Each dining area has access to outdoor space, with patios and courtyards on the first floor and balconies on the upper floors.

Centre County maintains ownership of the former Centre Crest building, with plans for its future use to be determined.