By Pauline Masson –
They did not consider themselves elderly 45 years ago when 14 Pacific families started an effort to build a nursing home that would provide extended care for the town’s ill, injured and senior citizens. The fact that some of them eventually came to need the facility they fought so hard to build seemed to make it all worthwhile.
The late Joe Dailey was credited with the development of the nursing home, now Pacific Care Center (PCC). Mr. Dailey, several family members and a group of publicly active families formed the 700 West Union Trust to develop the much needed facility.
Mr. Dailey’s mission never wavered. He thought Pacific residents should have extended medical care in the Pacific community. Family members should not have to travel to nearby town to visit relatives in nursing homes.
Original Trust members were Mr. Dailey, Ralph Butler, Ick Noonan, Fred Grimm, Fred Hoven, Harold Goebel, Bob Schmidt, Bob Schneider, Irvin Hoffman, Ed Buscher, Art Muehler, Ollie Preiss, John Krielick and Jim Lyle.
The Trust bought the 20-acre Dr. George Leber farm at the west end of St. Louis Street in 1981 and sold bonds to fund construction of the extended care facility.
“We had to have a certificate of need,” said the late Bob Schmidt, the youngest member of the Trust, who provided financial planning for the group.
A public hearing brought an estimated 200 residents to the Pacific High School, now Pacific Intermediate ( PI) cafeteria to discuss the need for a nursing home.
“Mr. Brundick, whose wife was in a nursing home in Washington, testified that he drove 50 miles each day, 365 days a year for five years to visit her,” Mary Beth Schmidt said. “It was an astonishing number of miles.”
A waiting list for individuals who wanted to move into a local nursing home quickly grew to twenty.
Competitive nursing homes in surrounding communities opposed a nursing homes in Pacific.They argued that a new home would add too many beds in the region and hurt everyone’s business. They filed a lawsuit seeking to prevent a new nursing in Pacific.
Mr. Dailey and his supporters hired attorney John Howe to petition the circuit court to grant Pacific approval to build the center. Opposing communities fought the request. After several court fights the Missouri Supreme Court approved the Pacific nursing home. But Opponents mounted appealed to the U. S. Supreme Court. When the federal justices refused to grant certiorari and review the appeal, the decision of the lower court stood and Pacific Care Center was built.
“It was a great victory,” Mrs. Schmidt said. “People in our community need to be cared for in our community.”
The Trust donated part of the former Leber farm for the PCC and in December 1985 the city issued municipal bonds to construct the building.
Under state permit procedures the new nursing home was required to be fully staffed and provide a residence for two people for a period of time before it could fill all the rooms. As it turned out, 18 of the people whose names were on the waiting list for residency had died in the intervening years. The two remaining individuals moved into Pacific Care Center on Nov. 1, 1986.
Twenty-three year old RN, Gretchen Roberts-Hoaglin was hired as nursing director and later administrator, who emerged as an expert in the areas of aging, medical trends and health care funding.
The 1980s and 1990s were watershed of new practices in American nursing homes. The framework of rules and regulations that apply today were introduced. Ms. Roberts-Hoaglin was an innovator who kept PCC in the forefront of every new innovation in nursing care.
In the early 1990s she enlisted PCC in a study of the little-known Alzheimer’s disease. For ten years, PCC’s Alzheimer’s wing provided services to patients with a terminal illness and their families, caring for up to ten patients, and focused on educating family members and the community about the disease.
Ms. Roberts-Hoaglin and staff spent studied the disease in evening classes at the St. Louis Alzheimer’s Association, and in seminars at the national Alzheimer’s Conference. They’ve participated in the annual Memory Walk to raise money and raise awareness about Alzheimer’s. And they conducted a monthly support group to help families come to terms with the challenges of caring for someone who doesn’t remember them.
When she saw in 2001 that the State of Missouri was not distributing available Medicare funds to Nursing Homes and their economically needy patients, she and her nursing director wend to Jefferson City to lobby state legislators for federal Medicare funds to be distributed to Missouri nursing homes and their Medicaid patients.
That same year PCC nurses aides went through an extraordinary training exercise. She reasoned that nursing home staff members should have a sense of what their patients were feeling as they are fed and cared for or transported to recreational events in the common room or therapy. She launched monthly training sessions where the entire staff met with patients to talk about patients’ feelings.
In 2002 the Trust stockholders donated an acre of ground near the care center for construction of the Tri-County Community Senior Center, a facility for senior meals, recreation and education.
On Dec. 30, 2004, three of the original shareholders of the 700 West Union Trust, Marie (Mrs. Ed) Buscher, Jessie (Mrs. Ollie) Preiss and Ginny (Mrs. Joe) Dailey, were on hand to see ground broken for the senior center building.
Again, Ms. Roberts-Hoaglin stepped forward to help the senior organizers find their place in the intricate state senior services system. She served on the Tri-County Senior Center board of directors for more than a decade and through PCC provided assistance in the senior center lunch and senior services programs.
In 2005 she oversaw opening of the Terrace Assisted Living community – a 16-unit assisted care wing – where individuals who are mobile but still need some assistance with medications can live. The assisted living wing has its own parking spaces for residents who drive, its own laundry room and large living room.
Every aspect of extended care caught her attention and led PCC into the mainstream of extended care.
In 2007 PCC opened a hospice room to provides services to patients with a terminal illness and their families
In 2012 she introduced Alliance Rehab as the rehabilitation therapy institution to provide physical, occupational and speech language therapy services to PCC residents.
In 2019, PCC faced a big change. PCC had a new name and new owner. The facility was acquired by HSI, which owns and operates a group of skilled nursing facilities.
Sadly, Gretchen Roberts-Hoaglin died June 24, 2024 at the age of 61 years after a battle with cancer.
Today after 35 years, Pacific Care Center is still an active expert skilled nursing care facility, a 5-star accredited skilled nursing care center dedicated to the physical and emotional well-being of its residents that true to Joe Dailey’s goal stresses friendliness to all who enter – residents, family members and visitors.
Pacific Care Center Administrator Kevin Hudson, oversees a staff of 70 caregivers, food, and service personnel, who care for residents. Mr. Hudson stresses the same friendly, home town welcoming atmosphere at PCC that the original founders promised.
We ,the original owners continue to be proud of bringing Pacific Care Center to Our Community and thank Pauline for her continued support of our endeavor and are Very Grateful to Gretchen for her Dedicated Leadership in making it the facility it is today