Submitted Photo Pictured are County Executive PJ Wendel and Heritage Ministries CEO Lisa Haglund. Heritage Ministries has recently announced the establishment of a new board of governance.

Local nursing care provider, Heritage Ministries, is looking towards a better future for their organization as they recently announced the establishment of a new board of governance, to be made up of people locally from Chautauqua County.

Heritage Ministries is the largest, trusted provider of skilled nursing care in the county, including providing care in the areas of therapy, memory care, rehabilitation, assisted living, and independent living, with three facilities in the Chautauqua County area. The establishment of a new board governance structure is aimed at ensuring the organization’s long-term success and safeguarding the well-being of those it serves.

Heritage was founded over 130 years ago by the Free Methodists, and current CEO, Lisa Haglund, said that in order to move forward from the challenges of the past, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the organization felt that a new board needed to be established, specifically made up of local people.

“The new board is set to be able to strategically handle challenges, diversify our participation, collaborate with other organizations and help us to provide the highest level of care we can to the county,” Highland said.

While deeply honoring its faith-based mission and legacy, Heritage also acknowledges the challenges posed by prior decisions that have placed the organization — and the vital care it provides — at risk.

The new board is to help secure Heritage a strong future, something which Haglund said is very important to do because of the establishment’s impact on other local organizations, including UPMC. Heritage plays a major part in supporting UPMC, Haglund said, being one of the last local nursing home establishments, and providing work to over 600 employees. UPMC would feel a major impact without the ability to discharge to Heritage, she added.

“We are so excited that this new board is coming in to lead Heritage,” Haglund said. “We are thrilled and thankful to our new board for coming in, establishing our roots in Chautauqua County and letting us be led by Chautauqua County leaders. There’s a lot of exciting things coming in the next few years.”

Looking to the future, Haglund said she hopes Heritage will be able to diversify their revenue stream, improve their margins and improve their ability to serve the county. She said she also hopes to expand workforce development and bring better healthcare back to New York State.

“We live in a medically underserved area and we need innovation and partnership, and our new board is prepared to tackle those challenges,” Haglund said.

Additionally, Haglund said Heritage has been able to overcome many of the challenges from the past, including Covid and other past decision making. In the future they will continue to overcome any future challenges and focus on growing locally, she added, also thanking county executive PJ Wendel and other county leaders who Heritage has been working with as they focus on establishing the new board. “Strength in Unity” is a new theme for Heritage, termed by Wendel, and has become the guiding principle of their new effort.

“We have a new theme of strength and unity,” Haglund said. “We have been working across county lines with PJ Wendel and other county leaders and are looking to the future with a focus on strength, unity, local growth, local leadership and local government.”