McGregor PACE brings adult day services to Rockynol on Akron’s west side

Nonprofit senior care organization McGregor PACE has expanded to Summit County by opening a location on the Ohio Living Rockynol campus.
At the facility, McGregor PACE provides health care services, breakfast and lunch and activities to Summit County residents who are 55 and older.
The nonprofit offers its participants, who primarily have both Medicaid and Medicare insurance, home-delivered meals and home care, as well as transportation to and from the facility.

Older Summit County residents who live at home but need assistance in their daily lives can take advantage of a newly renovated facility on Akron’s west side.

McGregor PACE, a Cuyahoga County-based nonprofit senior care organization, expanded its services to Summit County in May, when it opened its 1275 W. Exchange St. location on the Ohio Living Rockynol campus.

McGregor PACE provides health care services to people who are 55 and older through a federal- and state-funded program called PACE, or Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, said Danelle Stover, McGregor PACE’s Summit County site administrator.

The Akron facility currently services 12 participants and has received applications for more area residents to enroll, Stover said, adding that new participants are enrolled on the first day of each month.

The nonprofit offers its participants, who primarily have both Medicaid and Medicare insurance, home-delivered meals and home care, as well as transportation to and from the Exchange Street facility, where they receive physical and mental health services, socialize and participate in activities, Stover said.

“If they want to come in five days a week, great,” Stover said. “If they don’t want to come in at all and they just want the benefits that we provide in the home, that’s fine too.”

McGregor PACE is “always accepting applications” and accepts them directly from prospective participants as well as from their family members, Stover said.

“It is nice when there’s family involved because a lot of times family members or caregivers are strained and they just need some help, so we’re able to provide them with some relief,” Stover said. “But we can fully support a participant living on their own, well into their older age.”

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What health care services does McGregor PACE offer in Akron?

Participants must meet “nursing home level of care,” Stover said, meaning they require staff help them with daily activities such as bathing, dressing and grooming.

“That’s just a fancy way of saying they need assistance with those activities of daily living, the ADLs, and then also their IADLs, instrumental activities of daily living, so things like their finances, grocery shopping … meal preparation,” she said.

Participants’ health conditions vary, but they include memory impairment and dementia, effects of stroke, schizophrenia, chronic respiratory diseases and heart failure, Stover said.

McGregor PACE currently has about 12 staff members that include a physician, a nurse, aides to the physician and nurse and others who specialize in dietetics and social work, Stover said.

An on-site clinic includes exam rooms and instruments to check participants’ height, weight and vitals.

The nonprofit is both a medical provider and insurer and prescribes medications, Stover said, adding that McGregor PACE contracts with a pharmacy to send medications to participants’ homes.

An on-staff psychiatric nurse practitioner works with patients who require psychiatric care, and McGregor PACE also contracts out specialty psychiatry services with Axess Family Services, Stover said.

McGregor PACE provides its participants breakfast and lunch, as well as physical and occupational therapy and exercise equipment and weights, she said.

McGregor PACE also coordinates all of its participants’ medical appointments and transportation to and from the appointments, whether they be to see the cardiologist, the dentist or emergency care professionals, Stover said.

“If they go to the ER, we’re following them from the ER, to their bedside, to skilled nursing, if they need it,” Stover said. “We’re coordinating everything throughout the way, talking to the hospital, talking to the rehab center. So, we’re really always involved.”

What activities does McGregor PACE offer in Akron?

McGregor PACE’s Exchange Street facility includes two day centers: the terrace room and the garden room, Stover said.

The former is for adults who are more independent, and the latter is for those who wander or require additional care, she said.

Activities and transportation professionals are also on staff in Akron, Stover said, adding that the participants must be chaperoned at all times.

“There is a really nice pond in the back, so they like to go to the pond and see the fish,” Stover said. “And then they always use the patio, so they’ll go out there and play games.”

Some participants have cared for and planted tomatoes in flower beds on the patio, she said.

Participants also play cards and other games, Stover said.

McGregor PACE contracts with vendors on activities, she said. This includes bringing in music therapists; the local library to host a book club and to lend books to participants; and a vendor who hosts music bingo.

“We’re always looking for activity vendors,” Stover said.

McGregor PACE leasing renovated space from Ohio Living

McGregor PACE leases the nearly 21,000-square-foot space from Ohio Living, which owns the Ohio Living Rockynol campus and also has independent and assistant living and rehabilitation space there, Stover said.

The McGregor PACE facility is on the first floor of the Ohio Living Rockynol campus’ western building, which used to house Ohio Living’s skilled nursing facility. Ohio Living’s skilled nursing facility is still in the building but moved up one floor.

The main entrance and reception area for the McGregor PACE facility is a brand-new, 1,600-square-foot add-on.

Impact of Medicaid and Medicare cuts on McGregor PACE unknown

Stover said “it’s hard to judge right now” how McGregor PACE and its participants will be impacted by planned cuts to Medicare and Medicaid via the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that President Donald Trump signed in July.

Support of PACE has been a bipartisan effort locally, Stover said, with state Sen. Casey Weinstein, D-Hudson, and state Rep. Bill Roemer, R-Richfield, having both provided support.

Stover also said she was encouraged by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz visiting a San Francisco PACE facility in May.

“It’s a different way of looking at how you can age in America,” Oz said, according to San Francisco-based KTVU FOX 2. “Instead of being in a nursing home, throwing the keys away, and putting you in a place where you might not want to be, they take you into a community that’s all-inclusive.”

For McGregor PACE, Stover said being both the medical provider and insurer is a boon to providing participants with well-rounded care.

“There are no barriers to what we can provide a participant,” she said, “with the ultimate goal that we want them to remain living in their homes for as long as they can.”

Patrick Williams covers growth and development for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @pwilliamsOH. Sign up for the Beacon Journal’s business and consumer newsletter, “What’s The Deal?”

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