In a recent blog on the McKnight's Long-Term Care News & Assisted Living website, Eleanor Feldman Barbera wrote about a recent visit to a Green House facility.

According to Barbera, The Green House Project creates the “ideal” long-term care setting from the ground up.

A 'Green House' is designed to be more like a home, with private rooms off a large common area that includes a living room, dining area and kitchen.

Barbera said she found this model turned everything she'd known about nursing homes upside down.

"It was striking that aside from the wheelchairs and the computer monitor, I didn't see any medical equipment. The blood pressure gauge and other necessary items were kept away from sight in a small room off the common area. I didn't smell any of the scents typically associated with long-term care. There were no buzzers, alarms or overhead pages to be heard over the cooking, television, and crackle of the fireplace," she wrote.

Barbera said certain Green House concepts could be adapted to other facilities, including:

• Creating a closet to house oxygen tanks, blood pressure gauges, etc. to keep them from view

• Replacing overhead paging with a silent communication system

• Enlarging shower areas so that people can come to and from the shower rooms fully clothed

Read the blog.