Transitional Care

A partnership built on experience

Post-acute care is getting much more than a new address in Saginaw Township as the Covenant HealthCare and Wellspring Lutheran Services partnership prepares to move the Covenant Transitional Care Unit from Covenant’s Michigan Avenue campus to Wellspring’s Senior Living Campus at Shattuck and Wieneke Roads.

With the move, it will take on the new name of Transitional Care Community and become part of the offerings on the Wellspring campus. The new facility is part of a $5 million investment that will provide the most advanced post-hospital care and services available in the Great Lakes Bay region — all designed to help patients transition from hospital to home after a significant medical event. The opening of the new Transitional Care Community is slated for June.

Watch the Press Announcement

This partnership between Covenant and Wellspring represents the best of two organizations — both leaders in their respective fields. With more than 135 years of acute care and community medicine expertise, Covenant is partnering with Wellspring Lutheran Services and its nearly 130 years of experience focused on community-based care and services for the elderly. While it’s not unusual for these types of organizations to work together, it is very unique for them to commit to a full partnership and the long-term commitment that entails. This partnership is particularly timely as we continue to see our communities aging — which comes with an increasing need for transitional therapy care, especially over the next decade.

“The opening of the Transitional Care Community represents only the beginning of how our community will benefit from two legacy, faith-based and dynamic organizations coming together to serve. Both Covenant and Wellspring are committed to exploring additional ways our expertise and innovation can serve more and fill in gaps as our communities age,” says Dave Gehm, president and CEO of Wellspring.

Wellspring and Covenant are already partnering on delivering similar services at Covenant’s Transitional Care Unit.

A commitment to the region

“We are excited to continue building upon this partnership, providing high-quality post-hospital care for patients in the Great Lakes Bay Region,” says Kevin Birchmeier, executive vice president and COO of Covenant HealthCare. “This new space will provide a welcoming environment and allow staff to provide a higher level of therapy and nursing care to patients as they progress through their journey to transition home.”

Take a look at architectural renderings of the Transitional Care Community. The renderings were produced by Detroit's Basic Design. The facility is designed to allow the Wellspring and Covenant partnership to provide the best post-acute care in the Great Lakes Bay region. Construction is being performed by Frankenmuth-based Wm. Bronner & Son Contractors.

As the organizations looked at the regional landscape, the campus in Saginaw Township was the obvious choice for relocating TCC. Not only is the campus easily accessible to the entire Great Lakes Bay region, but also Wellspring had previously repositioned its memory care services from its own dedicated building to become part of a dedicated floor of the assisted living community. Having assisted and independent living, as well as memory care activities already on the campus means additional amenities, services and life enrichment activities will be seamlessly available to TCC patients.

The Transitional Care Community will deliver physical, occupational and speech therapies in a newly-renovated, state-of-the-art facility, working closely with the nursing department to assure the highest quality in post-acute programming. Patients who choose TCC will experience a seamless transition from their hospital care to the short-term residential therapy needed to get them on the road to recovery and home. Both Covenant and Wellspring are committed to highly effective therapy that will speed the transition back to home for patients.

The renovations on the building are being completed by Detroit-based Basic Design and Frankenmuth-based Wm. Bronner & Son Contractors.

Transitional Care Locations

Wellspring – Senior Living Campus

Saginaw, MI

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Join the care team

The current health care team will continue to serve patients at the Michigan Avenue location until the move to TCC’s new home in May. The team that will open the new building is being formed now. As a result, we are hiring now and will prepare staff working at Michigan Avenue for their new work environment beginning in March and April. To be part of this exciting move to enhancing care for the Great Lakes Bay region, candidates are encouraged to visit the careers wellspringlutheran.com/careers and complete a brief application.

Careers