Becker Morgan partners on Milford Wellness Village design

Healthcare in the 21st century means improving health and lowering costs while contributing to economic development.

Nationwide Healthcare Services is bringing an innovative healthcare approach to Delaware by developing the state’s first wellness village.

In July 2019, Nationwide Healthcare Services purchased the former Milford Memorial Hospital from Bayhealth with the vision of creating a one-stop shop for value-based community health. The 266,000-square-foot, 80-year-old former hospital is being transformed into a comprehensive wellness village anchored by Polaris Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center, a 150-bed skilled nursing facility and rehab center.

Nationwide CEO Meir Gelley said, “We are partnering with Dynamis Advisors, the nation’s leading developer transforming these community assets into models that resonate with where healthcare is going – not where it has been.”

Dynamis, based in Cleveland, Ohio, has advised on more than 85 such transformations in 20 states. Dynamis President Scott Keller said, “The COVID-19 crisis is accelerating the need for the transformation of these assets.”

Traditional hospitals were designed during a time when fee-for-service models flourished. In the new value-based world, wellness villages will become the norm. Rabbi Halberstam, Nationwide’s chief strategy officer for Milford Wellness Village, said, “Our goal is to improve health and reduce costs by co-locating primary and post-acute medical service providers with tenants that impact other aspects of a family’s holistic health, including education, childcare, fitness, behavioral health and chronic disease management.”

The skilled nursing facility is one piece of the $30 million Milford Wellness Village, which will include an array of complementary services once it is built out. Halberstam said, “The Milford region is growing rapidly, and we want to be in a position to provide the latest services the population is demanding.”

Nationwide Healthcare and Dynamis turned to the team at Becker Morgan Group to transform its vision into a reality. The team started with a series of kickoff meetings to understand Nationwide’s goals for the wellness village. Understanding the user experience was paramount throughout the design process, taking into consideration how the Milford community will use the transformed facility. For Becker Morgan Group’s interior designer, Ann Camper, NCIDQ, this was one of the most rewarding aspects of this project. “As a Milford resident, I am thrilled to be a part of giving this facility a new life for the future of healthcare in our community,” she said.

Once entirely built out, the healthcare village will be organized to promote cross-pollination of services. Users will be able to visit their primary care doctor and walk next door to have a prescription filled. The carefully planned facility is the result of heavy lifting in the investigation phase of the project which yielded the partners wishing to co-locate.

After this phase, Nationwide, Dynamis architects, and town planners worked in close alignment with Becker Morgan Group to determine which spaces of the former hospital could be utilized for future tenants and patients. After careful space planning, the team divided the project into multiple phases. Becker Morgan Group Project Manager Brenden Frederick, AIA, attributes the project’s success to the initial planning. He said, “Similar to any master planning project, it was imperative to develop strategically sequenced steps from the overarching vision to maintain momentum on such a large-scale renovation.”

Tenants expected to open their doors in 2020 include Polaris Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center, La Red Health Center, Aquacare Physical Therapy, Nurses ’n Kids, and Kidz Ink Academy of Early Academics. Additional phases of the redevelopment will bring complementary healthcare and wellness providers to the facility.

Becker Morgan Group team members are proud to be a part of this innovative project in Sussex County and are looking forward to the benefits it will provide for the community.