The Ledger features Florida Presbyterian Homes

We were happy to wake up today and see a large article - Lakeland Facility Strives for Highest Ratings - featuring Florida Presbyterian Homes (FPHI) in The Ledger, replete with pictures of and interviews with a few of our residents. The article is part of a larger series the newspaper is doing on nursing home care in the region.

Click the link above to read the full article, but here's a brief excerpt:

At 92, Fritz Messinger enjoys an enviable lifestyle that includes maid service, meals and snacks on demand, and a daily 2 p.m. beer chilled to his liking. Messinger keeps trim with daily laps in a private swimming pool. A female caretaker hovers in the shade as the dapper nonagenarian practices his backstroke. The ritual ends with a brief catnap in the sun.

"Wake me up a week from Tuesday," he coos, settling into a chaise longue.

Club Med for the senior set?

Not really. Messinger lives at Florida Presbyterian Homes, a Lakeland nursing home rated one of the best in the state. At just 40 beds, it's also the smallest nursing home in Polk County, and it's one of only six nursing homes in Florida to have been twice awarded the prestigious Gold Seal.

Of approximately 700 nursing homes statewide, only 17 have ever received the Gold Seal designation, created in 1999 to signify nursing homes of superior quality.

"This is really a nice place to grow old,'' said John Hehn, executive director of Florida Presbyterian Homes, a private, faith-based nonprofit enterprise serving retirees ages 62 and beyond on more than 50 acres just east of Lake Hunter.