Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital
Improving Quality of Life One Patient at a Time
Deborah Bauman, Lake Taylor board chair; Thomas Orsini, Lake Taylor president & CEO; Bob Aston, TowneBank executive chairman; Charity Volman-Winn, TowneBank Norfolk president; and Anita Poston, TowneBank Norfolk board chair, at the dedication of the TowneBank Board Room at Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital.
Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital is a long-term acute care provider in Norfolk with 104 licensed hospital beds and 192 nursing home beds serviced by 400 employees, all under one roof. Lauded as one of the top five transitional care hospitals in the nation and named to Newsweek magazine’s 2024 list of America’s Best Nursing Homes, Lake Taylor focuses on treating patients with complex medical and rehabilitative needs that require specialized treatment over time.
According to Tom Orsini, president and CEO, who’s been guiding the nonprofit for 24 years, the focus of Lake Taylor’s mission has shifted through the years, most recently to palliative care. “We’ve been at this location since 1890, and over time we’ve served the community in different ways,” explains Tom. “Our healing heritage spans decades caring for local patients with contagious diseases from tuberculosis to HIV and of course through the COVID epidemic.”
Tom continues, “Today, we’re a provider of choice for post-surgical rehabilitation and joint replacement rehab patients and a Center of Excellence in respiratory therapy helping to wean patients off ventilators. This spring we moved into our newly renovated pediatric wing on our hospital level that cares for children with complex health needs. And now we have a full program for palliative care, which is really a comprehensive discussion about how to maximize the quality of life for a patient of any age.”
As people are living longer, it’s more likely that they are living with at least one challenging medical condition. This has increased interest in palliative care medicine, which is designed to enhance the quality of life for people living with serious illnesses. Palliative care addresses all the needs of a patient by bringing together a multidisciplinary team of doctors, nurses, social workers, spiritual advisors, and family members who work together to find the best solution to manage symptoms, reduce pain, and improve quality of life. Palliative care is not hospice care, although it can include hospice at some point.
The hospital has a long-standing history with Eastern Virginia Medical School, partnering with EVMS when it began studying geriatric medicine as part of the Glennan Center’s geriatric curriculum. In 2018, Lake Taylor and EVMS again joined forces to increase access to palliative care and launched the Macon F. Brock Jr. Palliative Medicine Program with financial support from Joan and the late Macon Brock, co-founder of Chesapeake-based Dollar Tree. Macon suffered from chronic lung disease, and while there was no cure for his condition, with the help of coordinated palliative care, he was able to live longer with a better quality of life.
“We’re the first area medical facility in a post-acute care setting, outside of the hospitals, to offer palliative care, and support the discussion between a patient and their family that asks the patient what their needs are and what is important to them,” says Tom. “The focus is: ‘Let’s talk about this now and have the discussion with everyone involved rather than waiting until something bad happens and then deciding what to do.’”
At the beginning, Lake Taylor’s Palliative Care Program was only able to serve about 12% of eligible patients due to the costs involved. In 2023, the hospital launched “Living Life to its Fullest,” an $8 million capital campaign to enlist the help of community partners to dramatically increase access to palliative care. Their goal is to enable every patient at Lake Taylor to have palliative care if needed. As of June 2024, the campaign’s fundraising goal had been 99% achieved.
TowneBank, who has served as Lake Taylor’s financial institution since 2022, made a significant gift to the effort in April 2024, and in turn, had the hospital’s renovated board room named after Towne.
“TowneBank has been very supportive of what we are trying to accomplish,” says Tom. “Any health facility, whether it’s a hospital, a nursing home, or a doctor’s office, needs financial partners. We are still a business. We still need people who want the best for us and who can help us make the right decisions. What’s nice about working with a local company like Towne is I know if I have a problem I can pick up the phone and call our commercial banker Karen Priest, and she will give me the help I need to resolve it.”
In closing, Tom adds, “TowneBank has really become a true partner with us over time and is a big supporter of our palliative care effort. I think we all have the same mission. We’re here to make Hampton Roads a better place.”
For more information on Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital, visit LakeTaylor.org.