Residents at St. Andrew’s at New Florence will have a place where they can receive therapy and get in shape before going home to their loved ones.

The nursing home opened a rehab center that includes weight lifting equipment and rooms that are equipped with power recliners, coffee pots and TVs. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Nov. 10.

“We’re just very excited about this new rehab center,” said Rachel Payne, director of therapy. “We expanded it, and everyone seems excited. The residents have been very excited. We brought new people over here who have never been in this facility. They’ve been very amazed at it. They are excited to do what they can do every day.”

Social Services Director Heidi Rives said St. Andrew’s is now the only facility in Montgomery County to have a rehab center.

“This has been a long time in the making,” Rives said. “All of our staff are proud to talk about it and show it off. They worked hard on getting the community in here. We had flyers that we made to go out to the hospitals to show off our facility. Our zero percent readmission rate is huge. Within 30 days, Medicare dollars don’t like to pay. So if a patient comes out of the hospital and goes back within 30 days, that’s an issue. We have a zero percent readmission rate for 30 days, so that’s a huge plus for us.”

Executive Director Amy Hill, who performed the ribbon cutting, said the rehab center is a big addition to St. Andrew’s, which has been in business since 1975.

“This is special because we will be the only long term care facility in our county that has the actual rehab-to-home center,” Hill said. “So residents who come from the hospital to get better and use our fantastic gym will go straight from here back home and not stay in the long term care site.”

The nursing home expanded its gym by four times its size. It also remodeled four rooms and plans to work on more rooms each month.

“When you walk in here, you feel like, ‘I’m going to get a workout,’ ” said Jeremy Buttram, regional manager of Select Rehabilitation. “Rachel and her team are the ones who make everybody who comes in here feel special about themselves and they get them to where they need to be.”

Rives said many residents enjoy having the new rehab center at St. Andrew’s.

“We have two in our rehab unit right now,” Rives said. “We also do therapy over here for our skilled residents. They love coming out here and working in the gym with a huge TV. We have a nice courtyard that it overlooks. So they could look out and see nature. We always have turtles, rabbits and things out there for them to see.”

Rives said staff members at St. Andrew’s talked about adding a rehab center in May.

“It’s been a slow process getting it going,” Rives said. “But once it got started, we definitely moved faster on it.”