By Alex Christodoulides
The $3 million project, to expand the center's short-term rehabilitation facilities, is part of an $18 million upgrade to the entire site characterized as “soup to nuts” by Gerald Hart, executive director of the Margaret Tietz Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.The remaining $15 million is to be used inside the building to buy 200 new beds, update the decor and revamp the way the center offers care to residents, such as serving hot meals from pantries to be built on each floor instead of from a central kitchen, said Clari Gilbert, senior vice president of operations at Beth Abraham Family of Health Services.”The way we give care to residents is changing. Families' expectations are much higher, and sometimes the residents can't make that decision” of where to go for care, Gilbert said.Michael Fassler, president and CEO of Beth Abraham, said the two organizations had been affiliated for about two years. It was as if they reached that point in a marriage when one partner starts to change little things about the other.”Looking around, the place is getting a little old,” he said with a smile. “Our job is to step in and update things, and the expansion is the first step. This'll be the place everybody'll want to go for rehab.”Almost every elected officials whose district includes the Tietz Center attended the groundbreaking, which took place after the speeches, on a bulldozed strip of land along the 164th Street side of the building that once had grass and a hedge. Before the cameras flashed, state Assemblywoman Ellen Young (D-Flushing) made sure to straighten a drooping hyacinth placed in the mulch.”In the new redistricting, the Margaret Tietz Center was taken out of my district, but my constituents don't seem to know that,” joked state Assemblywoman Nettie Mayersohn (D-Flushing). “I get the same calls, 'You've got to get my mom in. I'll even vote for you,' because this is one of the best nursing homes and rehab centers in Queens.”State Sen. Frank Padavan (R-Bellerose) noted that the Tietz Center was an indirect beneficiary of the state budget that had passed in Albany two days previously. “The two priorities we had were education and health care,” he said.Young praised the center's efforts to welcome the borough's many ethnic communities.”As early as eight to 10 years ago, Margaret Tietz started to reflect the changing community by reaching out to the Asian community,” she said.State Sen. Toby Stavisky (D-Whitestone) echoed the sentiment.”So many different people come here from so many different parts of the world, and we are better and stronger for it,” she said.Reach reporter Alex Christodoulides by e-mail at achristodoulides@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 155.
