GRAND FORKS — ShareHouse will open its new Grand Forks location Monday, Jan. 24 after a five-month development and construction process.
The new facility will offer on-site chemical use assessments, co-occurring clinical services, medication-assisted therapy and telehealth services for those suffering from addiction and mental health issues.
ShareHouse President and CEO Ty Hegland said there are only a few finishing touches left to be made before opening day to make sure everything goes smoothly.
“We are waiting on some secure door systems and things that were back-ordered,” Hegland said. “But those door systems are getting installed (Jan. 20), and we should be good to go come the 24th, so the morning of the 24th we will start accepting patients.”
ShareHouse’s only options for creating a new location, this being its third inpatient facility and sixth facility overall, were to acquire a lot and build a facility from scratch, which Hegland said would have taken anywhere from three to four years, or to acquire and redesign an already existing building. After deciding on the latter, the process of acquiring the land, on which an old Super 8 Motel used to sit, took about a year. From there, construction began with the goal of turning the two-story building into a 16-unit residential facility equipped with patient lounges, a gym and workout studio, telehealth rooms, group therapy rooms, walking paths and more.
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Hegland said the location was specifically chosen for convenience.
“We needed quick access to three things: quick access to I-29, quick access to Highway 2 and then also we needed a quick access to Altru,” Hegland said. “So, when you put all those pieces together, it was tough to find a commercial property that aligned with that.”
Part of what goes into the opening process for ShareHouse is the difficult task of having the facility be properly and fully staffed by the time doors open. Hegland said there’s more to hiring than just signing paperwork and showing up on opening day.
“We really believe in onboarding employees the right way and not just having them show up day one, and it’s, ‘Doors are open, let's take patients,’” Hegland said. “We spent three weeks onboarding employees, so that's taking all the employees, hiring them three weeks in advance, starting their training, starting their familiarity with processes and procedures, and just getting them comfortable and ready to be able to accept patients.”
So, what’s the first thing new hires are taught?
“I would say, really, the first few weeks of any new development project is focusing on the fundamentals,” Hegland said. “We know how to do this, and we do it great, and our patient satisfaction surveys have backed that up.”
Hegland said he provided one of the first training sessions to new hires. He preached two things to always focus on: customer care and team communication. The rest takes care of itself.
“We have a large network of internal providers, whether it's in Fargo, or now in Grand Forks, who all have done this before,” Hegland said. “You’ve just got to rely on your teammates, and you’ll be just fine. So yeah, I would say we're ready to roll, and we're just excited to be there.”
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Hiring issues have plagued the United States since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and Hegland said ShareHouse had to be proactive when it came to finding the right employees. ShareHouse increased referral bonuses in order to attract more applicants. Overall, Hegland is pleased with the progress and said there are enough employees already for the facility to open.
“We've been very, very proactive in that,” Hegland said. “We got out and started recruiting pretty early… We won't start with any shortages of any clinician or employee type, but as with everything, you could always use more (employees) just for peace of mind. So, we'll continue to recruit the community hoping to find more CNAs and also hoping to find a full-time LPCC, and that’s like a full-time mental health counselor. So we're gonna keep working on it.”
