It is not every day that there is a $5 million dollar investment in Dallas County and Selma, let alone any other community our size. However, thanks to the efforts of Charles Hise and Dunn Nursing Home, that investment is being made.

Come November, Selma will see the benefits of this investment as Park Place Nursing and Rehabilitation Center opens its doors. The new facility will be located at 100 Park Place, right behind the new dialysis center in the Park Place development near Vaughan Regional Medical Center.

This facility will encompass 52,000 square feet and have 103 beds in private and semi private rooms, 10 more than the existing location.

Dunn now staffs 120 full and part time workers.

Cooper Brothers Construction Co. of Selma is the contractor and is employing 50-100 construction workers on the site at any given time.

Hise is quoted in Monday’s newspaper saying, &uot;The community’s been good to Dunn Nursing and we want to show our appreciation to Selma.&uot; To show his appreciation, Hise is using local people and spending local dollars in this investment.

Hise does a great job as do his employees who have worked with the facility for more than 20 years. The staff attrition rate is less than 15 percent, compared to the industry standard of 80 percent to 90 percent.

Dunn has bragging rights on their technological advances as well as the other areas where they expertise in. They boast of the most advanced electronic charting system on the market, enabling nurses to view all aspects of a patient’s progress in relation to his or her treatment.

It is a wireless system that enables a nurse to be in a patient’s room with a laptop to have instant access to all data on the resident, and then input date through the laptop to the server at the point at which medications and treatments are administered.

This is a great story of a current business meeting the demands of a growing industry and the willingness and determination to make an investment. If Selma could get more businesses to do the same as Hise and his operation, it would be an even better place to live.

The Times-Journal commends these efforts and wishes the best to Park Place Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and its employees as they begin to make the transition to their new location.