By Marcia Lane
Photo by Brian Miller
Mention BayView and most St. Johns County residents will know you’re not talking about a view, but rather the latest incarnation of a health care program that dates back to the 1920s. Through four major programs, BayView Healthcare provides nursing home care in a designed residential setting that includes some of the best views in St. Augustine.
Those programs are under the auspices of the St. Johns Welfare Federation, a Florida not-for-profit corporation, set up in 1920 and incorporated in 1924. Today their mission remains the same as when they began: “To take care of and look after the indigent, the sick and needy persons in the City of St. Augustine, and County of St. Johns.”
These days that includes a comprehensive, multi-level, post-acute continuum of care. Four facilities make that possible and offer residents and families multiple options. Two are housed at the health care facility known as BayView, located on a 4.7 acre waterfront site in St. Augustine. Samantha Wilson Care Center is a 120-bed Medicare-certified rehabilitation and skilled nursing facility, that has short-term nursing services with physical, occupational and speech therapy, offered on an in-patient basis. Long-term care and skilled nursing facility-based hospice services also are offered. Also on the site is BayView Assisted Living at the Pavilion, a 59-bed, licensed assisted living facility.
At 161 Marine Street is BayView Outpatient Therapy Services, where treatment and equipment are provided for physical, occupational, and speech therapy for community residents. Nearby is BayView Assisted Living at Buckingham Smith, a 34-bed assisted living facility licensed as a limited nursing service. All care is subsidized as residents there are unable to afford assisted living services.
BayView Healthcare • 161 Marine Street • (904) 806-5832
