The Planning Board voted to allow an Adult Day Health facility to open on Lancaster County Road in Harvard, reversing an earlier ruling. Just eight people, including board members, were present at the June 17 meeting where Joanne Saprapasan of Shirley made the case for her proposed business.
In her presentation to the Planning Board, Saprapasan asserted, “Seniors become more and more isolated as they age and lose friends and peers to illness and death … We want to help the seniors still feel that they are a valuable and important part of this intimate town.” Saprapasan’s business would be part of the greater Massachusetts Adult Day Health program, which aims to assist seniors with their activities of daily living both financially and by organizing and certifying businesses like this one.
According to Saprapasan, her business would serve adults in need of constant attention, offering both supervision and services. The clientele would be retirees at least 62 years old and people with significant physical or mental disabilities. Critically, it would not serve those with severe issues such as autism or Alzhiemers, as such patients require more specialized care.
Adult Day Health services would include supervision, transportation, grooming, medication management, organization, shopping, and social activities. Certified medical staff would include a social worker, a dietician, two nurses, and some resident assistants.
Saprapasan explained that the business would be located at 16 Lancaster County Road in a 5,450-square-foot building. By state law, the building would have a maximum capacity of up to 80 patients, but Saprapasan said that she aims for between 30 and 40. Staff would work from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., but patients would be present only from around 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saprapasan said the additional time would be spent preparing activities for patients and then evaluating and recording their health.
Saprapasan did not attend the March 18 meeting at which the Planning Board ruled that adult daycare services do not fall within Harvard’s zoning bylaws, as the town’s daycare bylaw specifies that such businesses would provide care for children. At the June 17 meeting, she argued that Adult Day Health should be considered a medical facility and be considered under Harvard’s allowances for doctors offices.
Recalling the context of the board’s previous denial, Planning Board member Justin Brown stated, “I like the business; I think it would do well in Harvard. The only question in my mind is whether it fits within our existing bylaws.” Director of Community and Economic Development Christopher Ryan pointed out that Harvard’s bylaws do allow for medical offices, and that the relevant bylaw was purposely written vaguely to allow for interpretation.
Board member Jarrett Rushmore offered a potential justification, arguing that a medical office is a facility that offers medical services, that anything paid for by Medicare or Medicaid is a medical service, and so Adult Day Health (which offers services which can be paid for by Medicare/Medicaid) must be a medical office. Ryan strengthened this argument by pointing out that a key difference between a medical office and a hospital is that a medical office offers service only during normal business hours, a trait shared by Adult Day Health. Hearing these arguments, the board members voted unanimously to approve the business.
Saprapasan hopes to open the business by October 2019, though she explained that it would not be able to pick up patients from their houses until around March 2020, as that activity requires an additional license. Before it can open at all, the business still needs approval from the Board of Health and a site plan review by the Planning Board, as well as a license from the state Adult Day Health program.
