Voorhees Aging-in-Place Modifications Near Virtua Voorhees Hospital

Voorhees: A Planned Community Where the Plans Did Not Include Growing Old

Voorhees Township is one of Camden County’s most carefully planned suburban communities. Developed primarily during the 1980s and 1990s, Voorhees was designed around the principles that defined late-twentieth-century suburban planning — curving residential streets organized into discrete developments, each with its own character and amenity set, connected by a network of commercial corridors anchored by the Echelon Mall area along Route 73 and Haddonfield-Berlin Road. Virtua Voorhees Hospital, which opened in 2011, added a major medical campus to the township’s infrastructure, cementing Voorhees as a self-contained suburban community where residents can live, shop, work, and receive medical care without leaving town.

The homes in Voorhees reflect the era and intent of their construction. Two-story colonials, center-hall plans, split-level and bi-level configurations, townhouse clusters, and age-targeted communities fill the township’s residential zones. These homes were designed for families in their peak earning and child-rearing years — spacious, comfortable, and equipped with the fixtures and layouts that were standard during the 1980s and 1990s building boom.

What those plans did not account for is the fact that many of those original families would still be here thirty and forty years later. The couples who bought four-bedroom colonials in Voorhees to raise their children are now retired couples living in homes with empty bedrooms upstairs, a single staircase connecting their bedroom to their kitchen, and bathrooms equipped with the same step-in bathtubs that were installed when Reagan was president.

Accessible Solutions modifies Voorhees homes to close the gap between how they were built and how their residents need to live now.

Planned Community Floor Plans and the Predictable Barriers They Contain

One advantage of working in a planned community like Voorhees is that the housing stock follows recognizable patterns. A development built by a single builder in 1987 will contain three or four floor plan variants repeated across fifty or a hundred homes. Once we have modified one home in a Voorhees development, we understand the construction methods, wall framing, stairway geometry, bathroom dimensions, and entry configurations for every home in that neighborhood.

The two-story colonial — the dominant housing type across Voorhees — follows a layout that is almost identical from development to development. The first floor contains the kitchen, family room, living room, dining room, laundry area, and a half-bathroom with no shower. The second floor contains all bedrooms and two full bathrooms with tub-shower combinations. The main staircase rises from the front foyer in a straight run or with a single turn at a landing. The front entry is two to four steps above grade.

Every element of this layout creates an accessibility barrier for an aging resident. Sleeping requires going upstairs. Bathing requires going upstairs. The only toilet on the first floor is in a half-bath that is too small for a wheelchair. The front entry steps prevent wheelchair or walker access without a ramp.

Our modification strategy for Voorhees colonials addresses these barriers systematically. A stairlift on the main staircase restores access to the bedroom and bathroom level. Upstairs, we convert the hall bathroom or master bathroom from a tub-shower combination to a barrier-free walk-in shower with grab bars, a fold-down bench, and a handheld showerhead. Grab bars are added at every toilet, along the hallway between bedroom and bathroom, and at the top and bottom of the staircase. A modular ramp at the front entry eliminates the exterior steps. For families who want to eliminate stair dependence entirely, we evaluate converting the first-floor half-bath into a full accessible bathroom and repurposing a ground-floor room as a bedroom.

Virtua Voorhees: South Jersey’s Newest Hospital and Its Impact on Home Modification Demand

Virtua Voorhees Hospital opened in 2011 as a state-of-the-art medical facility serving Camden, Burlington, and Gloucester counties. The hospital’s surgical programs, emergency department, and rehabilitation services generate a constant flow of patients who need home modifications before or after discharge. For Voorhees residents specifically, the hospital is not just nearby — it is in their township, often less than ten minutes from their front door.

The hospital discharge scenario that drives much of our Voorhees work follows a consistent pattern. A resident falls at home, is transported to Virtua Voorhees, undergoes surgery for a fracture, spends time in rehabilitation at the hospital or a nearby skilled nursing facility, and is then evaluated for discharge. The rehabilitation team determines what the patient can and cannot do — can they climb stairs, can they step over a bathtub threshold, can they navigate exterior steps with a walker. If the home cannot accommodate the patient’s current functional level, the discharge is held until modifications are completed.

We maintain active relationships with the discharge planning and social work teams at Virtua Voorhees. When a referral comes in, we move quickly. The home assessment happens within days. Materials are staged at our Atlantic County warehouse, approximately thirty minutes from Voorhees. Installation is scheduled to align with the projected discharge date. Our crews arrive, install the ramp, convert the bathroom, mount the grab bars, and set up any required durable medical equipment so the patient returns to a home that is ready for them — not to a home that requires weeks of additional work while they manage with unsafe temporary arrangements.

The Echelon Area and Voorhees’s Commercial Accessibility Ecosystem

Voorhees’s commercial center, clustered around the former Echelon Mall site and the Route 73 corridor, provides a concentration of medical offices, rehabilitation facilities, and home health agencies that Voorhees residents rely on as they age. Physical therapy practices, orthopedic groups, primary care physicians, and home health nursing agencies all operate within minutes of the residential neighborhoods.

This infrastructure creates a support network that complements the home modifications we install. A Voorhees resident who receives a bathroom conversion and grab bars from us may also be receiving home physical therapy from an agency based on Route 73. The physical therapist works with the patient in the newly modified bathroom, reinforcing safe techniques for using the walk-in shower, the grab bars, and the fold-down bench. The modifications and the therapy work together to maximize the resident’s independence and minimize fall risk.

We welcome coordination with home health providers serving Voorhees residents. When a physical therapist or occupational therapist identifies additional modification needs during their home visits — a grab bar in a location we did not originally install, a threshold that needs ramping, a doorway that needs widening — we respond with targeted follow-up installations that address the specific clinical recommendation.

Townhomes, Condominiums, and Multi-Level Living in Voorhees

Voorhees contains a substantial inventory of townhomes and condominiums, particularly along the White Horse Road corridor and in developments near the commercial core. These attached multi-level units present aging-in-place challenges that differ from single-family homes. Bedrooms are always upstairs. Interior stairways are narrow. Exterior entries may be shared or governed by condominium association rules. There is no yard space for ground-floor additions.

Our approach to Voorhees townhome modifications focuses on maximizing accessibility within the existing structure. A stairlift on the interior stairway connects the living level to the bedroom level. The upstairs bathroom is converted from a tub to a barrier-free shower. Grab bars are installed at every critical transition point. For the exterior entry, we work with the HOA or condominium association to design a ramp that satisfies architectural guidelines while providing the resident with safe, independent access.

Under federal fair housing law, condominium associations in Voorhees cannot refuse reasonable accessibility modifications. We handle all association communication, submit modification plans for review, and ensure that our installations comply with both ADA requirements and community standards.

Voorhees Families Deserve a Single Contractor for Every Accessibility Need

Accessible Solutions delivers every aging-in-place modification Voorhees residents require. Modular ramp installations and rentals starting at $300 per month. Bathtub-to-shower conversions and barrier-free roll-in showers. Tub cuts to lower existing bathtub entry thresholds. Grab bars and safety handrails in bathrooms, hallways, bedrooms, and stairways. Stairlifts for straight and curved staircases. Doorway widenings to 36-inch ADA clearance. First-floor bathroom expansions from half-bath to full accessible bath. Durable medical equipment including hospital beds, wheelchairs, and power scooters.

Licensed New Jersey contractor. Certified NJ MLTSS Medicaid provider. Thirty minutes from our warehouse to your Voorhees home. Complete aging-in-place services from one trusted contractor.