HOLYOKE, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Governor Maura Healey, along with Veteran Services Secretary Eric Goralnick visited the current Holyoke Veterans’ Home to meet current residents and discuss future plans prior to the opening of the new veteran’s home — which is set to have the ribbon cut this fall.

The governor is here not only to meet with those residents — but to highlight the high-performance that places this home among the strongest long term care facilities in the country, “That I would do whatever I could to make that better and you know, I was given the opportunity by the legislature to appoint a cabinet level secretary of veterans services for the first time ever, and I was able to do that and one of the missions that we had early on was to make sure we were doing everything we could to turn around our veterans homes to give the staff the teams and the residence of our homes in Chelsea and Julio the facility that they deserve,” Governor Healey said.

They went on their tour of the current facility on Wednesday afternoon, with the governor stopping to shake hands with veteran residents, expressing her gratitude for their service to our country.

Healey, along with the leaders of the veterans’ home, pointed out specific successes of the facility, including staffing levels, staff certifications, veteran satisfaction, safety culture, and programs, operations, and community.

They note that Holyoke’s numbers are more than double the national benchmarks for both registered nurses and certified nursing assistants. Their research indicates that when a veteran stays in a facility long term, rather than being transferred to a hospital or emergency room, it’s a sign that the care team is doing their job.

They also wanted to highlight that in recent years, they’ve taken several steps to improve the facility. For example, they’ve opened a women’s unit, their volunteer program is at full strength with 72 active volunteers.

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