The Best of Southbury

Transcript

Southbury.com – Hi everyone. Michael, here from Southbury.com and this is another “Best of Southbury – Business Spotlight“. We’re about to go in and speak with Wendy Mutter, the Marketing Liaison for the Lutheran Home. Come on, let’s go!

Southbury.com – Hi, everyone! Michael, here from southbury.com. I’d like to welcome everyone. This is another episode of the “Best of Southbury – Business Spotlight”, and I am here at the Lutheran Home of Southbury and I am joined by my esteemed guest, Wendy mutter, Marketing Liaison of The Lutheran Home.

Southbury.com – Hello.

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – Hi.

Southbury.com – Nice to see you.

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – Nice to see you.

Southbury.com – Wendy and I have done these many times never together on camera. So this is quite a treat I think.

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – Yeah. Yeah. I guess we’re going to find out who’s best at this. Are you behind the camera or in front of the camera?

Southbury.com – You’ve got me beat by a long shot! So Wendy, let me ask you this, first question for you. Tell us a little bit about the Lutheran Home and what you guys do here?

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – So the Lutheran home is 120 bed skilled nursing facility. We have short-term and long-term care, and we also have a 14 bed facility called Parley Manor, which is independent living with kind of a twist. So, uh, there’s three campuses and we can, uh, you can feasibly admit to one, move to the next and move to the next an you can you stay all within the Lutheran home family?

Southbury.com – Okay. So Wendy, you’re the Marketing Liaison here at the Lutheran Home, when would someone engage with you, um, about potentially moving a relative or a friend to the Lutheran home?

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – Michael, good question. So I am part of the admissions team here at the Lutheran Home and our job is to evaluate potential patients for our nursing home, whether they’re going to be long-term, short-term rehab or are they going to go home or where they might have to move into our independent living, Parley Manor. So I and my colleague, we review charts, clinical information, we interview the family, we have forums, we talked to the doctor and then we come to a decision whether we can provide the care necessary for the individual in question. And, uh, we are always a fluid situation where people are coming and going. So there are always generally a bed available for somebody. And that’s when you call me or my colleague, because we’re the ones that work with you, uh, to get you into our program.

Southbury.com – So Wendy, you mentioned Parley Manor. Is that a separate level of care that you provide here at the Lutheran Home?

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – Yes, sir. You hung around with me enough. You understand my work! Yes. It is an interesting level of care. It’s right on the campus. It’s actually part of the original building of the Lutheran home from a hundred years ago. Um, and it’s independent living, almost assisted living. So it’s a very unique level of care. The only one offered in, I don’t know, a very large area, maybe the only one left in Connecticut. And, um, actually right now we have just begun the complete renovation room by room ceiling to floor of Parley Manor. It’s going to be beautiful where we, you know, we have some logistic issues that we’re going to deal with for the next several months. But when the building is finished, it’s going to be a glorious place and another alternative lifestyle as we age.

Southbury.com – That’s fantastic. What’s the anticipated and I won’t hold you to it. What’s the anticipated date?

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – I have no idea. I’m assuming by the end of the year.

Southbury.com – Okay, fantastic. So Wendy, now that COVID is hopefully behind us, uh, it certainly, uh, subsided drastically. How has that impacted your business? Obviously, I would imagine positively, what’s been the effect on the Lutheran home.

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – So like everybody here in Connecticut, we had our woes, but you know, the service we provide is never going to not be needed. So we’ve had to figure out ways to redo business and happy to say that, you know, we’ve reopened again to visitors. We’ve opened up to events. Uh, we just had to put in some new policies and procedures in place, but, uh, we’re looking forward to the future. Uh, we are not here to predict whether COVID is here to stay or gone or whatever, but we are here to show certainly that, uh, throw us a little wrench in the wheel. And, uh, we certainly prevailed and we were doing great. Thank you.

Southbury.com – So when you, when someone is looking for an elderly care facility in the area, why would someone choose the Lutheran Home over other facilities that are local?

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – Michael, The Lutheran home is rated five stars. It is a state-of-the-art nursing home where you can get highly specialized rehab care along with long-term care. Okay. And it’s, you know, the physical plan, it’s a beautiful place. So the Lutheran home was recently renovated. So, I mean, if you’re going to live here, you have to come to a place, you need to be bright and shiny and airy and we have one of the greatest staffs available. You know, we’re all regulated and, uh, we all have to follow guidelines, but I tell you what, one thing that makes us stand out at the Lutheran Home is the caring, wonderful staff, the longevity. I mean, some of these people have been here, this has been their career and it’s just a, uh, a joy to come here and see the love and the attention and the commitment that the staff provides. We’re one big happy family here.

Southbury.com – Lovely Wendy. So you and I have worked extensively, uh, on other projects together, specifically with the Southbury Business Association. Uh, we’re both board members and you are the president of that organization, reigning President. Um, we do a lot of good for the community. And there’s a project specifically that you started here at the Lutheran Home that now the Southbury Business Association has helped a lot. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – So my role here is not only as the clinical role, but it’s also a community role with marketing and doing events and giving back to the community, which is a very large part of the Lutheran Home. It’s been here for over a hundred years. So the Festival of Wreaths, not my idea, but, uh, I started in another town and when I moved here to start work for the Lutheran Home years ago, I brought the idea with me and it started out small and it was to raise money for whatever organization or charitable, uh, need that I found in the community and to give it back and then finally it got to the point where I realized I needed more help. And that’s when I approached the Southbury Business Association and it’s grown into one of the great yearly events for the firm, for the town. It raises money for the scholarship foundation for our high school here in town. And, uh, these are our future leaders, our future doctors, nurses. Right. And, um, it really felt that it fit well with the Lutheran Home, the community and the Southbury Business Association. So, um, and it’s, and it’s growing and it really has become an event that people talk about. So it’s been fun!

Southbury.com – Fantastic. So Wendy, I want to thank you so much for coming on board with me today. This has been fantastic. It’s a bit of a role change where you’re doing interviewing versus being interviewed. Um, but you’re always fantastic. And obviously you love what you do here at the Lutheran Home. So thank you for taking some time with us today.

Wendy Mutter (The Lutheran Home of Southbury) – Thank you Michael and have a nice day.

Southbury.com – You as well. Everyone at home, thank you so much for being with us. If you want to learn more, a little bit more about the Lutheran Home, you’ll see the information at the bottom of your screen, and also contact information for Wendy, the Marketing Liaison here at the Lutheran Home. Thank you everyone. And we’ll talk to you soon.