Legend of Hutchinson commemorates remodel

By JUDD WEIL 
Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Legend of Hutchinson, in conjunction with the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce, held a ribbon cutting ceremony on March 9, commemorating the facilities $5 million remodel. 

The remodel was a massive 10,000-square-foot expansion, meant to improve the quality of life for Legend residents in many ways such as meals, lifestyle, entertainment, and overall personal involvement.  

The age of the building, according to Chris Mahen, COO of Legend Senior Living, was a major factor in the choice to remodel Legend of Hutchinson.  

“It's just an older building that needed some resources to upgrade it and make it look attractive,” Mahen said. “It needed to be upgraded to what current times are honestly, I mean, it just needed to be. When we took over, the decision was made at that time that we were going to invest the money into the property in order to bring it up to the standards of what we would build right now if we were to.” 

The new additions include a country kitchen, a therapy kitchen, courtyards, a movie theater, gathering spaces, and an expanded dining room.  

The interior of the building including floor and ceiling received work. It was also painted and finished. Exterior improvements were made to the windows and siding.  

Every aspect of the remodel is meant to emphasize a greater freedom when living in an assisted-living community, even in the corridors for example.  

“One of the best features about Legend is they really believe in the wide hallways and why that is, is because we want whether it's a family or a couple to be able to walk side-by-side,” Tiffany Kengari, Regional Sales Director and sitting administrator with Legend of Hutchinson, said. 

Legend hosts 118 apartments that are divided into assisted living, independent living, and memory care for those with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. 

Legend moved more of their apartments to assisted living and equipped their memory care unit with a larger activity space.  

“We have a studio and then we have a studio deluxe, which is just larger in space, and then we have what's known as an alcove deluxe,” Kengari said. “The alcove deluxe would be considered more what people are thinking of a standard one bedroom.”  

The therapy kitchen was converted from the former country kitchen. Residents are able to go in and maintain their cooking skills.  A new country kitchen was created with the expansion. The dining room has been expanded and now features a private dining room where families can have a little bit more intimate meal if they would like. 

Legend of Hutchinson also features another full kitchen.  

They also have raised flower beds throughout the place for residents that like to grow vegetables that are then used in the kitchen. 

Additionally, there are life enrichment areas and an exercise room for activities.  

The memory care unit, or as Legend calls it, reflections, saw a complete remodel.  

“The memory care unit, we redid the whole thing,” Kengari said. “The dining room is new, we added a large life enrichment room for them, and then we added on to their patio and their courtyard out there, and then we are starting to redo the rooms back there.” 

“The thing about Legend, is you should never be able to tell the difference from assisted living to memory care. When you go, everything's the same,” Kengari added. “We set tables the same as it is in assisted living. Every program that's here [in assisted living], is back there, because what we have found throughout the years is normally memory care units are afterthoughts.”  

In many communities, memory care units are very isolated from the rest of the long-term care facility, and often never looks the same as the assisted-living units.  

“It looks more kind of forgotten,” Kengari said. “Once you enter a Legend community you should never be able to tell the difference between assisted living and what we call reflections.”  

Kengari said Legend Senior Living is known for their memory care and they work a lot with neuroplasticity to find new pathways to help people in reflections to continue to perform daily tasks.  

“We do a lot of our own training. All of our CNAs and CMAs that work in our reflections are certified dementia practitioners (CDP). We do put them through that extra training,” Kengari said. “We do use the best friends approach, and so they have to go through and learn the whole curriculum of what the best friends approach is.” 

Recently, the whole staff at every level throughout Legend Senior Living’s 46 properties went through nine weeks of dementia training.  

Legend of Hutchinson also works closely with veteran organizations, such as American Legion, Daughters of the American Revolution, and Honor Flight.  

A big part of Legend’s setup is motivation, as at every corner there seems to be something for residents to continue their quality of living. 

“Our philosophy at Legend is that ‘idle minds idle hands,’” Kengari said. “Our whole purpose of what we do and why our design is, is to continue to keep you active and wanting to continue to learn and do things.” 

Legend Senior Living operates out of Wichita and has senior living communities in six states, including Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania. 

On March 12 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Legend of Hutchinson will be having an open house to show off the remodel.  

Legend of Hutchinson is located at 2416 Brentwood. To RSVP to the open house call (620) 314-4707. 

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