Roseburg VA Director Patrick Hull leads a tour of The Meadows on Wednesday.

The Roseburg VA Medical Center this week opened The Meadows, a nursing home capable of providing care for hospice patients and long-term housing needs for veterans in Douglas County.

The 17-patient facility is mainly used for long-term care. However, there are two private rooms designated for hospice care.

“This is why I do the job, for moments like this that we can come together and pull individuals working on a common goal to help serve our veterans,” Roseburg VA Director Patrick Hull said. “At the heart of our mission is a commitment to provide comfort, dignity and compassion. Today, of course, we are standing in front of a ribbon and we are cutting it to celebrate a wonderful moment in the Roseburg health care system’s history.”

The facility is equipped with kitchens, a dining hall and private areas for veterans to spend time with their families. A main priority for The Meadows’ staff is to provide veterans ways to socialize with others and to be active around the facility.

The building is not new to the VA, the facility’s capabilities are. Associate Chief Nurse Executive Regina Haney said in a matter of six weeks her team was able to get the building ready to officially open.

“There was a lot of cleanup we had to do. Environmental services came in and did an amazing job cleaning up. The nursing department, my nurse leaders Cheryl and Amber, came in and really did a lot of cleaning up of items that did not need to be here because the building became ours at that point,” Haney said. “We got it set up to be home life for the community living center as opposed to more of a medical model. That was our main focus.”

The Meadows facility will function on the basis of age-friendly health systems which is a health care initiative. This initiative holds significance in four areas of care that provide the foundation for how the staff at The Meadows will provide care — what matters, medication, mentation and mobility.

Army veteran Bill Duncan represented Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 805 at Wednesday’s ceremony. He said The Meadows is a step in the right direction to getting the VA back to its original state.

“Our thought was to restore our VA hospital. That’s what we strive for today. A lot of the things we ask for is bringing the hospital back. This thing is a great start,” Duncan said. “This is my home and when I want medical care, I want it here.”

The Meadows, so far, houses two veterans for long-term care. There is no waitlist for the facility and staff are fully prepared to work at capacity.

“If people are interested in the long-term care they can go to their (Patient Aligned Care Team) teams if they need. We have reached out to our community partners to see if any of their veterans are interested in moving over here,” Haney said. “There is space, they can reach out.”