Eudora ? Eudora Development Inc., owner of the Eudora Nursing Center since it opened in 1975, has transferred operations to nursing home operator Medicalodges Inc.

Coffeyville-based Medicalodges is set to assume ownership of the center on or before Jan. 31.

“We’re really pleased that they’re coming in and taking over now,” said Stan Byrne, president of Eudora Development. “Their ideas on running a nursing home are the same as ours. Their way of doing things are on the small-scale, and they will deal with Eudora as a single location.”

Although Medicalodges is the 35th largest nursing home operator in the United States, the employee-owned company works to make each location feel small.

“The advantage of being employee owned makes the care being provided personal,” Medicalodges President Garen Cox said. “None of us work for an owner stationed somewhere else. We benefit directly from providing good care because we keep residents happy. It’s an incentive for employees to do a better job, too.”

The Eudora center is a 76-bed, intermediate-care facility with about 85 employees. The center has 58 residents.

Medicalodges will be leasing the nursing center while waiting for the purchase to become final. Company officials do not anticipate making any immediate changes.

“Our first intention is to get into there and get to know the residents and the employees,” Cox said.

Medicalodges will, however, be applying for Medicare certification.

“We’re really happy about that,” Byrne said. “We had talked about it, but we’re so small that it would’ve been cost-prohibitive.”

Cox said he believed that the timetable for approval could be two to three months.

“A lot of it depends on the Medicare people,” he said.

Medicalodges has nursing operations in 26 towns in Kansas, including Gardner, Paola, Leavenworth and Kansas City.

“We are pleased to be a part of the health care delivery system of Eudora and the surrounding communities,” Cox said.