Laguna Honda Hosp & Rehab Ctr

Description

Our Tradition of Service

Laguna Honda is a skilled nursing and rehabilitation center owned and operated by the San Francisco Department of Public Health Located on a 62acre campus in the heart of the city Laguna Honda is one of the largest skilled nursing facilities in the United States and represents the one of the most extensive commitments by any city or county to therapeutic care for seniors and adults with disabilities It was founded in 1866 to care for one of the first generations of San Franciscans the Gold Rush pioneers A century and a half later it remains a civic icon representing San Franciscos tradition of service to the underserved

Our programs
Every day Laguna Honda clinicians and support staff dedicate themselves to highquality individualized care for the centers 780 residents The Laguna Honda model encompasses a wide range of services

Rehabilitation Therapeutic services include physical occupational speech and vocational programs Every year as many as 240 people complete rehabilitative therapy at Laguna Honda and return to independent living

Skilled nursing services

The only dedicated skilled nursing facility for HIVAIDS in the San Francisco Bay Area
A nationallyrecognized program for people with Alzheimers and other dementias
Group livng for people with developmental disabilities
Treatment for multiple sclerosis Parkinsons and other degenerative diseases
Therapeutic services for traumatic brain injuries and the effects of stroke
Guidance and support for people with psychosocial difficulties
Complex care for people with multiple diagnoses
An awardwinning restorative care program that asssits residents to retain and reclaim physical competency
Pain mangement and endoflife care emphasizing comfort and dignity including an inhouse hospice operated in conjunction with the Zen Hospice Project of San Francisco

Our Commitment

Laguna Hondas mission is to provide highquality culturally competent longterm care and rehabilitation services to the diverse communities of San Francisco Individualized care plans for every resident are prepared by nurses doctors social workers and therapeutic providers in consultation with residents and their loved ones and are tailored to meet unique needs and preferences Our residents are our top priority Our staff of care providers do their work with respect and loving kindness

Our Future
In 2010 Laguna Honda will move into a new set of buildings currently under construction The new Laguna Honda will be the most modern skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility in the country Conceived by worldrenowned health care architect Derek Parker the new buildings were designed in conjunction with the Center for Health Design based in Concord CA to serve as a unique environment for healing and wellness

At Laguna Honda we rededicate ourselves every day to the wellbeing of our residents Our work is guided by a key value a critical mission and a vision of being the best at what we do

OUR VALUE

Our residents come first

OUR MISSION

To provide the diverse population of San Francisco with highquality and culturally competent rehabilitation and skilled nursing services

OUR VISION

To be an innovative worldclass center of excellence in longterm care and rehabilitation

OUR VALUES

Laguna Honda provides awardwinning skilled nursing and rehabilitation services to the diverse communities of San Francisco

We have served San Franciscos safety net population for over 140 years

When we opened our doors in 1866 it was to care for
one of the first generations of San Franciscans the
Gold Rush pioneers

Now thanks to the voters of San Francisco who overwhelmingly supported the replacement of our
1920sera buildings with a new cuttingedge facility
we are reinventing ourselves for another century and
half of service

The new Laguna Honda will open in Spring 2010 on the same wooded 62acre campus west of Twin Peaks where the current facility is located

Todays Laguna Honda combines its long tradition of service with innovative care to create lifeenhancing possibilities for new generations of San Franciscans

History

The Early Years
Laguna Honda opened in 1867 to care for one of the first generations of San Franciscans the Gold Rush pioneers

Many people who had come west seeking their fortunes in the gold and silver mines of Northern California went bust instead The burgeoning city responded to its growing numbers of people in need by constructing a four story wood frame building to house indigent San Franciscans on the old San Miguel Rancho west of Twin Peaks

The rancho had been the property of Joseacute de Noe the last alcalde or mayor of San Francisco in the days when the city was still part of Mexico It was a good place for people to grow their own food and tend animals Nearby on the sloping land behind Twin Peaks a natural spring fed a deep lagoon a laguna honda

The building was known as the Almshouse which until the 20th century was a common term for a place of refuge housing people who were chronically ill or impoverished with nowhere else to go

Like many such places the Almshouse grew its own food and livestock on 87 acres of farmland By 1870 the farm not only fed an Almshouse population of over 500 men women and children but produced a surplus harvest as well enough to cart into town three miles to the northeast to sell at market

There were scant amenities for the people of the Almshouse They made their own clothes and their own shoes But in 1872 the administrator reported to city officials that together with the food clothing and general cleanliness of the place it is equal if not superior to any of the same nature either in the US or Europe

The first medical services were provided in 1868 when the city opened a 24bed hospital during a smallpox epidemic After the epidemic abated in 1870 the hospital closed and was replaced by a small asylum Like many such institutions throughout the country the Almshouse was a refuge for a wide variety of people who lived at the margins of society

The New Century
As the century ended new buildings went up on the Almshouse grounds to serve an increasingly diverse population In 1890 the administrator reported that Almshouse residents represented some forty different nationalities

The defining event of the early part of the new century was the great earthquake and fire of 1906 The Almshouse was pressed into service to house and care for thousands of displaced San Franciscans Now known as the Relief Home it consolidated earthquake victims living in refugee camps scattered across the city A new pavilionstyle building was constructed able to accommodate 1000 people The buildnig was dedicated in 1909 by President Theodore Roosevelt

By 1910 the city had added another stately new building to the Relief Home Known as Clarendon Hall it housed 250 people and for the first time was intended specifically for people who needed long term medical care Clarendon Hall was demolished in 2008 to make room for todays Laguna Honda a facility able to withstand an earthquake many times more powerful than the one that caused Clarendon to be built

The leap from Relief Home to skilled nursing facility began in earnest in the 1920s when Mayor James Sunny Jim Rolph turned over the first spade of earth for the Spanish Revivalstyle buildings that would become Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center

Those buildings whose Mediterranean tile work is echoed in the architecture of todays Laguna Honda were opened in 1926 and continued to grow in the decades that followed with the addition of new finger wings the long Florence Nightingalestyle open wards that were customary at the time

In the 1930s Laguna Honda became a teaching center for the University of California medical school Surgery began to be performed and cardiograph and xray technology was introduced The entryway to the main building was graced with nowclassic WPA murals which are still on display

PostWar Changes
After the war Laguna Honda was the site of a cancer research program funded by the National Cancer Institute and the University of California Occupational therapy was introduced with a technical arts program in weaving and basketry A large room fitted with looms became known as the rug room named for the acclaimed products of the resident weavers The program grew into a fully fledged department of occupational therapy in 1953

In 1957 local businessman Gerald Simon founded the Laguna Honda Volunteers Inc a philanthropic organization that to this day funds amenities for Laguna Honda residents such as personal items assistive devices books music outings and celebrations In the 1960s and 1970s the Gerald Simon theatre at Laguna Honda was a venue for performers like Bing Crosby Merv Griffin Eddie Fisher Phil Harris Donald OConnor and Frankie Lane

Laguna Honda became accredited as a hospital in 1963 as it continued to redefine itself in ways that would allow it to meet the needs of its diverse service population The 1920sera buildings underwent a major renovation in the mid70s

Today and Tomorrow

Today Laguna Honda is a hospital specializing in skilled nursing and rehabilitation It serves people who have an extraordinary variety of clinical and social needs and who come from a wealth of cultural backgrounds The new Laguna Honda is a community of care where practitioners and residents alike are creating possibilities for wellbeing in a new century