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Another Reason to Celebrate!

Each year the Maryland Health Care Commission (MHCC) conducts a family satisfaction survey to measure the experience and satisfaction of family members of residents in Maryland's long-term care facilities. The results are posted on the MHCC website to assist consumers in making informed choices about nursing home selection. A total of 223 nursing homes in Maryland participated in the survey. Calvert Manor received a 9.6 out of 10 (statewide average: 8.2) for overall care. In addition, 100% of Calvert's family members responded that they would recommend us to others.

For our facility, the area of staff and administration ranked highest with a score of 3.9 out of 4. This a reflection of the high level of care given to our residents. We are proud of our Calvert Manor team!

Calvert Manor Healthcare voted as "FAVORITE!"

Once again the readers of the Cecil Whig have voted Calvert Manor Healthcare Center a FAVORITE! We placed 1st in the categories of Nursing Home and Extended Care Facility for 2008!

In addition, Calvert Manor was voted the #1 nursing home by citizens of Newark, as published in the Newark Post.

Thanks to all who voted!

Ruth Graybeal - Our Family Caring for Your Family
by Maggie Creshkoff as featured in Cecil Soil Magazine, June 2008

Ruth Graybeal is a pretty woman with a ready smile, so youthful looking she's often mistaken for the wife of one of her sons. She has graceful hands, hands so delicate that it's hard to imagine they've run what many consider the best-known nursing home and rehabilitation center in the country for half a century. This calm Conowingo native with the modest manner traces her genealogy back to England's Cromwell family, is related to one of the oldest families in our area (The Nickles of Success Farm) and is an entrepreneur in every sense of the word - a self-taught businesswoman and hard-working role model that anyone would be proud to emulate.

She married into the business after wedding Frank Graybeal in 1954 and they purchased the Graybeal Rest Home from his parents four years later. Her in-laws had turned their wartime boarding house into a rest home in 1947 when Maryland eliminated public alms-houses. The young couple renamed it the Graybeal Nursing Home in 1958 and Ruth well remembers the March blizzard that snowed them in for a week. Four many years, all the Graybeals lived on site, and she said her family and the residents worked together in the garden, in the kitchen canning produce and handling the farm chores. "We were one big family," she remembered.

That very same feeling of family still exists, though much has changed since those early days. While raising three sons, Ruth attended the newly estblished nursing program at Harford Memorial Hospital and received her LPN degree in 1967. Frank expanded the facility (at that time named Calvert Manor Nursing Home), increased its capacity three times in three whirlwind years and was planning a fourth addition when he met with a fatal automobile accident in 1969.

"You do what you have to do," Ruth mused. What this young widow did next was astonishing. She operated Calvert Manor and raised her family while studying for and receiving her Nursing Home Administrator's License. It seemed, according to her oldest son, Ken, that the more people expected her to knuckle under, the more determined she was to make a success of the business. Ruth smiled, shook her head and said simply, "I've always had a wonderful staff."

And a wonderful family: all three sons joined her at Calvert in the early 1980s after acquiring business degrees and/or the technical skills that would be invaluable to the rapidly expanding organization. Grandchildren have joined the staff, making four generations of Graybeals caring for members of their community. It is now called the Calvert Manor Healthcare Center, as the mission has grown to include the capacity for short-term rehabilitation, along with long-term nursing care. The core values remain, however, and the center recently scored in the top five percent of all Maryland nursing homes in general patient satisfaction.

Ruth Graybeal has been showered with honors over the years, including the Cecil Whig'sTrailblazer Award in 2005 and the 2006 Calvert Grange's Citizen of the Year Award, but she is most content with the many cards, letters and kind words offered by numerous residents, visitors and staff members.

Betty Lou Bulgin and Frances Linton were volunteering at Calvert the day I interviewed Ruth. Betty Lou gave me a letter she had composed for the upcoming celebration on April 11 of Ruth's 50 years of service. Her voice shook as she read,"...My husband was a resident at Calvert Manor for two years and was treated with the utmost care. He always said Calvert Manor was 'Home Away From Home'..." Frances said of the overall atmosphere, "It's not just caring for them, it's caring about them." Joanne Magness, RN and staff worker told me, "Ruth is such a special person, but doesn't flaunt it. She won my heart and respect," and one resident put it best: "If I couldn't be home in my house, I'm glad to be here."

What's next for Ruth Graybeal, after so many years of selfless service? Not that she intends to leave Calvert Manor. But perhaps she'll make time for a bit more travel with her friends. She's been to Europe, Alaska and all over the continental United States, and never tires of seeing new things. Or perhaps, she'll just savor life a little bit more in her house, the one she's designing right now to be built across the lane from Calvert Manor. It will be her first new house, her son, Ron, said. So after decades of making Calvert Manor a home for so many others, this unassuming lady will finally get a well-deserved home of her own. - CSM

http://www.cecilsoilmagazine.com/